The 66th Grammy Awards Ceremony has actually come and gone, with many artists smiling home while some others went home bitter and disappointed. Is this something new about the said awards, which actually is one of the biggest and most prestigious musical awards globally? Well, the answer is no!
First of all, the cry for foul play is not peculiar to either African or Nigerian musicians, it’s a global thing. We saw the comment made by Jay-Z during the award night, about his wife, Beyonce not winning the Album of the year all these years, yet has won a majority of the awards, about 32 of the awards, yet no album of the year. Then you look at Eminem and several other music stars, who have stopped attending the Grammys or caring about it. It is not about show of pride or arrogance, it is as a result of how the show has treated them and others over the years.
To Davido and my other Nigerian artists, have it at the back of your mind that Grammy Organizers will continue to nominate you guys in the future editions, and continue playing you guys mind games. No that you ain’t gonna win, no, they are smart and highly calculative, as such, knows how to place these things in a way that will balance their agenda. You gonna win at times, you gonna lose at times, and all these are not anchored on merit or not, but aimed at servicing their agenda, which keeps the show at the top echelon of most valued and treasured industry awards.
In other words, now that Nigerian musicians are going global with their Afrobeat genre, which has continued to gain global prominence like a wild fire, Organizers of the Grammy will continue to tap into the grace of Afrobeat. They will continue to nominate Nigerian big artists, using it to give excessive publicity, prominence and emotional attachment to the show, such that you all gonna be so eager to win it.
This whole thing is more like a gambling adventure, most especially the sport betting, were you win once in a while, giving you the hope that you can actually win something big next time, and that’s how you keep investing money after money on bets, eyes on the big win one day, and the said one day is never known to you. So the organizers of Grammys will continue to apply same tactics, just to keep the revered status, prominence and popularity of the award in tact for years to come.
Besides, the rave, craze and eagerly anticipation of the Grammys is no longer heavily felt in the western world, it has shifted to Africa, mostly in Nigeria, and hence the reason we saw a massive increased viewership of the 66th edition.
According to Statista.com, after the show gathered about 36 million views in 2009, the show has continually failed to attract such massive viewership. And according to this year’s rating, the award attracted about about 16.9 million views, representing a massive 34% increased viewership from last year’s edition, which managed to gather about 12.4 million views. In fact, it is reported that this year’s edition attracted the most viewership since 2020.
That’s the influence that was impacted by the nomination of some of the Nigerian music heavyweights for the awards. And watch out, with most people especially from Nigerian, becoming aware of the game plan of the organizers of the show, it will likely impact downward on the number of viewership. And watch out, Nigerian artists will win massively in the next edition, this is simply to rekindle the spirit of anticipation in the people once again. So, have it at the back of your mind that these people will continue to do this same thing as long as possible.
But note, the fact remains that the awards is highly prestigious and revered, but all we are asking is for the right thing to be done. It is not about whether my favourite artists won or not, it is about the general interest of everyone associated with the award.
(Photo credit: Google)