It is long over. Though they may still be celebrating, winners of the 52nd edition of the Grammy Awards may already be looking forward to the next edition of the awards. But while multiple winners like Beyonce may be celebrating and looking forward to the next edition of the awards, one question that may agitate the minds of Nigerians is when would a Nigerian based artist win a Grammy?
The last Grammy marked the second time Femi Kuti, Afrobeat musician, got a nomination for the Best World Contemporary Music Album category. His first nomination being in 2003, but he again lost out. Bela Fleck, an American, won the award in Kuti’s category with the album ‘throw down Your Heart: Tales from the Acoustic Planet’. He is not the first Nigerian-based artiste to go through the same situation. Before him, King Sunny Ade, an international musician was equally nominated but did not clinch the award in 1998. Beyond that other Nigerian artistes who have won the award have not been based in Nigeria. Sade Adu, Nigerian-British songwriter, three Grammy Awards, Seal Henry Samuel, a Bristish musician with Nigerian roots, and finally Sikiru Adepoju, a Nigerian drummer, was one of the collaborators of Global Drum Project Award, which won the Best Contemporary World Music for the 51st edition of the Grammy awards.
However, earning a nomination perhaps says a lot about the quality of the music selected, because of the process involved in its selection. Before an album can be considered as an entry, it must be generally distributed, via the internet, or mail order\retail sales, states the Grammy Awards website. The album is then screened by more than 150 experts, across fields, to determine whether or not it has been entered into the appropriate category prior to the nomination process by the voting members of the Grammy Awards. It is only after these procedures that the voting members of the national nomination committee of Grammy determine the winners.
Little wonder some of the album being played on Nigeria airwaves would not even be considered.

By Ademilola Bilewomo (Tell magazine, February 15,2010)

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