New Grammy category for African music ignores almost all of Africa

Nigeria's global star Burna Boy (center) is nominated in Grammy's new category "best African music performance." Nominees are from Nigeria, South Africa and Benin. Other African musicians feel neglected. Mulatu Astatke (left) is a pioneer of Ethio-jazz in Ethiopia, which has never earned a Grammy nod. North African musicians have rarely been nominated. At right: Tunisian singer Emel Mathlouthi. (Alexis Maryon, Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Karl Lagerfeld, courtesy of the artist)

The 2024 Grammy awards will see the introduction of a new category: "best African music performance."

When the category was announced last year, Grammys CEO Harvey Mason Jr. stated that it would be "able to acknowledge and appreciate a broader array of artists" than the two existing global Grammy categories, where African artists have traditionally had the only real chance of scoring a nomination.