Twenty-four hours after Nigerian Afrobeats superstar, Ayo Balogun popularly known as Wizkid lost in two categories at the 2022 Grammys, Naomi Campbell, has joined in the wide criticism of the Recording Academy, organisers of the award.
Recall that TCN had reported how Wizkid lost the Best Global Music Album to five-time winner Angelique Kidjo and Best Global Music Performance to Brooklyn-based Pakistani vocalist Arooj Aftab at the 64th Grammy Awards, which held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Los Angeles.
The British model, actress and singer expressed her displeasure at the loss, accusing the Recording Academy of failing to pay attention to what was going on in the universe.
In an Instagram post, Naomi said, “To my brother @wizkidayo ,#MadeinLagos was beyond a phenomenal album!! WINNER WITHOUT DOUBT !! You are the KING of the people , that has bought AFROBEATS mainstream, that means more than any academy of any sort.
“@recordingacademy Once again you choose to be tone deaf to what is going on in the universe”.
Continuing, she argued that the Afrobeats music genre deserves a Grammy category, urging the Recording Academy to establish subcategories such as Afrobeats Artiste of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year, among others, to avoid isolating the genre under the global music category.
“Changing World to Global is not Enough. Get up to speed on the state of all popular music and include Afrobeats Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and all the subcategories that this genre so deserves – just as an other respected and recognized musical genre. #MadeinLagos Album and song Essence was clearly in the wrong category; how can you ignore the song Essence, The song by Wizkid and Tems that was covered and remixed by Justin Bieber, you seem to isolate under global, when it should have been in song of the year category.
“This is a mis representation and a neglectful categorization of Music ONCE AGAIN . Give Afrobeats the representation it deserves. You are ignoring 1.3 billion people. It will only make us Rise !! Afrobeats in our hearts Africabeats to the world,” she wrote.
