Singer Amaarae criticizes Grammy organizers for establishing an African category.
Ama Serwah Genfi, also known as Amaarae, a Ghanaian-American musician, has chastised the Recording Academy, which organizes the Grammy Awards, for lumping all African music styles into one category.
According to the DAILY POST, the Grammys recently added a category for ‘Best African Music Performance.’
According to the organizers, the category is open to both modern and traditional African music, such as Afrobeats, Afro-pop, Amapiano, High Life, Fuji, and so on.
However, in a recent interview with Metro TV, Amaarae stated that lumping all African musical genres into a single Grammy category was “reductive.”
“The idea of an African category [at the Grammys] is great in theory, but I think it is reductive,” she remarked. There are far too many genres of African music to lump them all together.
“Take a song like ‘Sad Girlz,’ ‘Calm Down,’ or ‘Last Last,’ for example; these are all songs that did well not only in Africa, but also globally and had massive global impacts.” As a result, they are popular records in my opinion.
“So, I believe that a record like [Rema’s] ‘Calm Down,’ with the remix featuring Selena Gomez, should be able to compete in pop categories [at the Grammys].” ‘Last Last’ by [Burna Boy] should be able to compete in hip-hop, R&B, or pop genres, in my opinion.
