Wizkid’s ‘Essence’ was robbed of the award for ‘Best Global Music Performance’ - Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj was recently trending following her comment on the place of the Grammy Awards stating that Wizkid’s ‘Essence’ was robbed of the award for ‘Best Global Music Performance’. During an interview, Nicki repeated the opinion of many fans and critics that the Recording Academy did not take into account how much “Essence” influenced the musical world. She continued with the need to come up with a new award creation for African music and other genres of music that are not quite common on the international stage, she noted that songs like ‘Essence’ should have been better awarded by the Grammy standards.

Her comments elicited backlash on social media with fans and other artists supporting her observation that Essence, a song by Wizkid and Tems which recently topped the charts, had cultural value and should have been nominated for Grammy Awards. Most fans of African music have this sentiment of hope but anger in that while Afrobeats is slowly entering the global mainstream, institutions such as the Grammys remain slow to recognize its utmost impact.

Other stars that have complained about the Grammy awards also include Naomi Campbell who has criticized the Grammy for not giving enough attention to Afrobeats despite its large market throughout the world. In the discussions, there is now a recognition that there appears to be a void in terms of the way the Grammy Awards address non-Western music, and the possibility of developing other such platforms for African musicians that are recognized internationally has been discussed as well.