Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Brighter chances for Nigeria at 2017 Grammys, as Wizkid, Kah-Lo make nomination list

By Daniel Anazia
10 December 2016   |   3:03 am
Getting nominated for the prestigious music award in the world, Grammys is a huge deal. Again is of the music world map as two of its music exports, StarBoy Music Worldwide act, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun well known as Wizkid...

Getting nominated for the prestigious music award in the world, Grammys is a huge deal. Again is on the music world map as two of its music exports, StarBoy Music Worldwide act, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun well known as Wizkid, and fast rising international act, Faridah Demola Seriki, who is well known by her stage moniker, Kah-Lo, has been nominated for 2017 Grammy Awards.

While Wizkid got nominated for his role in Drake’s hit single One Dance, Kah-Lo, daughter of former Minister of Defence, Demola Seriki, was nominated for her feature on British DJ, Riton’s track, Rinse and Repeat, which has been nominated for the ‘Best Dance Recording of the Year’.

The track, which fetched the Caro singer his nomination featuring Kyla, is off Drake’s award-winning album Views, which has been adjudged as one of the best albums released in 2016. The album made the highly coveted ‘Album of the Year’ category, competing against other award-winning artistes like Adele, Beyonce, and Justin Bieber.

Prior to this time, the award was only given to the main artiste but this year’s edition of the Grammy awards would see contributing acts and producers going home with awards as well. The 59th edition of the Grammy’s has 84 categories, and Wizkid and Kah-Lo are the only Nigerians on the list.

It need be noted that Wizkid has had a tremendous outing this year with top-notch awards credited to him, including MTV Europe Music Awards (Best African Act), 2016 MAMA awards (Best African Act), 2016 MOBO Awards, AFRIMA awards, The Headies (Nomination), and his Bill Board appearance as the first Nigerian to emerge on that list.

His international prominence started when his hit single, Ojuelegba had American rapper Drake and English rapper with Nigerian descent, Skepta, on the remix.

Kah-Lo describes herself as a ‘monotone rap princess’; her style is different and refreshing. The talented artiste posted on Instagram, “Oluwa did it! @ritontime has all the swag sauce!”

Rinse and Repeat has been streamed five million times on Spotify and played 1.5 million times on YouTube in less than a month after its release.

Recalled that the first Nigerian to be nominated for the Grammy award was King Sunny Ade, in 1983 for his album, Synchro System.

He was re-nominated in 1998 for his collection of Yoruba songs Odu, becoming the first African to be nominated twice.

At the 57th edition of the awards, which held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California, Nigerian-born Kelvin Olusola and his team, Pentatonix, won in the ‘Best Arrangement, Instrumental/Acappella’ category.

By the feat, Olusola joined the growing list of Nigerians who have won the award after Helen Folashade Adu (better known as Sade Adu), Henry Adeola Samuel (popularly called Seal) and Sikiru Adepoju.

In 1986, at the 28th Grammy awards, Sade Adu winning with her band, as ‘Best New Artiste’, became the first Nigerian to win in the prestigious awards. Ten years later, another Nigerian, Seal, won the ‘Record of the Year’ and ‘Song of the Year’ awards for his song Kiss from a Rose, a song, which was remixed as a soundtrack to Batman Forever.

Sikiru Adepoju won in 1991 and 2009 as a part of Mickey Hart’s group, Planet Drum, whose albums won the award for ‘Best Contemporary World Music Album’ for the two years.

Many other Nigerians have been nominated but lost out to other nominees. Afrobeat maestro, Femi Kuti, has been nominated for a Grammy award four times in 2003, 2010, 2012 and 2013, but did not win any. Others who have been nominated include Tyler Okonma, Tiwa Savage, and Chimamanda Adiche.

In this article

4 Comments