Adesope Olajide, a well-known figure in Nigerian media, expressed his ire at the Grammy Awards organizers for “stabbing Davido in the back” during the 66th ceremony.
Adesope claimed in a video that the Grammy Awards are more concerned with helping African musicians than with elevating them.
Not only was he disappointed that Burna Boy and Davido did not win honors for Best Global Music Album and Best African Music Performance, but he was also horrified that Fela Kuti’s “Water No Get Enemy” was played during the speech given by South African musician Tyla in honor of her victory. He had assumed that Tyla would prefer that her winning song, “Water,” be performed.
“I’ve always said that the Grammy Awards is not our thing. They don’t understand us. They don’t understand our culture, they don’t understand our music. They’re never gonna get it. Don’t get it twisted. The Grammy will never get anything that has to do with African music, African popular music and Afrobeats. They will never get it,” he said.
He restated that despite Davido’s smash song “Unavailable” went home empty-handed, the Recoding Academy benefited greatly from him.
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“As an Afrobeats fan, I am heart-broken. Grammy Awards benefited from the promo, I told them. Burna Boy I told them. The Grammy Awards and the Recording Academy benefited from the popularity of the Nigerians that were nominated, Davido and Burna Boy, especially the last one week what Davido did for the Grammys and al those interviews and promos they used him for marketing purposes and knowing fully well that s they do it, they were going to stab him in the heart and they completely used him and dumped him,” he noted.
In conclusion, Adesope advises African performers to avoid attending the Grammy Awards.
“I was just about to post to say this is over to the Headies now. African artistes, Afrobeats artistes, you all need to redraw yourselves from submitting your songs to the Grammys,” he said.
Tyla, a singer from South Africa, became the first artist to win the Best African Music Performance category in the program at the 66th Grammy Awards, which took place on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
he new category “recognizes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent, highlighting regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions.”
Tyla took home the 66th Grammy for her song “Water.” She defeated competitors Burna Boy (Citi Boys), Davido ft. Musa Keys (Unavailable), Ayra Starr (Rush), and Asake & Olamide (Amapiano).
