5 Nigerian Musicians Who Lost Their Grammy Nominations

“Don’t doubt me, I go bring you Grammy.”

This line from 9ice’s Street Credibility showed how important the Grammy was for successful musicians. Getting a Grammy award is everything in the music industry. It’s not only a statement of fact but vivid evidence that validates the authenticity of your craft as an artist. 

Being a nominee alone sets you on a different pedestal and several artists (both African and International) seem to have demystified this code as they keep getting Grammys (as long as they’ve been nominated in a category, they win). Although it took some time, some Nigerians eventually got to it (story for another day), but today let’s talk about some Nigerian musicians who were nominated and never got the award.

King Sunny Ade – Song title ‘Synchro system’

King Sunny Ade is one of the foremost musicians in Nigeria to reach international space enough to be nominated for the Grammys twice. He has always been a pacesetter and trailblazer for the Afro-Juju genre. Our baby Boomers and Gen X loved him, his music set everyone in the mood to boogie down.

He was a nominee for the Best Ethnic and Traditional Folk Recording Grammys but lost both. We still honour him for his impact and hope one day we’ll win.

Femi Kuti- Song title ‘Fight to Win’

Femi was nominated for the Grammy for his 2001 song ‘Fight to Win’. Although the song won the fight to get nominated, it couldn’t win the fight to bring home the Grammy. Well, the Kutis aren’t giving up any time soon, just to remind you that Fela Anikulapo Kuti is the father of Afrobeat and his offspring are still living up to the name giving us the best kind of Afrobeat one can imagine and there is no doubt that even though Fela and none of his offspring have won the Grammys yet, we are sure to win very soon.

Davido and Musa Keys – Song title ­‘Unavailable’

This song was a banger and was the theme song for every social media activity in Africa and beyond, but when it was time to clinch the Grammys, it was ‘unavailable’. Heart breaking for 30BG  (fans of Davido) but hit song no dey finish as the best thing about Davido is that he keeps on providing us with beautiful songs and soon enough the Grammys would be ours. 

Ayra Starr – Song title ‘Rush’

Ayra Starr is a Nigerian beauty with a beautiful voice and it wasn’t a surprise when there was a rush to get her nominated for the Grammys. We were all very expectant while waiting for her to be called upstage to receive the Grammys but it never happened (maybe because Sabi girl doesn’t like to rush things), sad! Yet we stan Ayra Starr because just like the Papilo line– one day, she’ll make us proud and soon we will have Ayra bagging the Grammys just like Tems. 

Asake and Olamide – Song title ‘Amapiano’

In this song Asake said ‘steadily we are getting it’ and we were so sure we were going to get it this time. The Golden boy and the Godfather in one jam, please tell me why we wouldn’t get the golden gramophone! Well, we are still nursing our pain from the loss of this Grammy but I am sure that this duo are already in the studio cooking something Grammy-befitting because we are not “greeing” for anybody and this time we are coming home with the Grammy.

Grammys or not, I’m going to keep jamming to these songs. You can tell me what you think about the songs in the comments. While you’re at it, you should join the “Music for Melophiles’ community” for juicy updates about your faves, interesting releases and so much more on Fusion.