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    The Grammys Rename ‘Best World Music Album’ Category to make it more inclusive

    KrystalBy No Comments2 Mins Read

    The Grammy Awards have renamed the international category of ‘Best World Music Album’ to ‘Best Global Music’ for “inclusivity” reasons.

    The Grammys Rename'Best World Music Album' Category to make it more inclusive
    The Grammys Rename ‘Best World Music Album’ Category to make it more inclusive

    The Recording Academy announced that the Grammy Awards have renamed the international category for “Best World Album” to “Best Global Album”.

    The Grammys said that this was in line with being culturally sensitive to the modern world. This follows months after the Oscars renamed the international category “Best Foreign Language Film” to “Best International Feature Film”.

    The Grammys are known to be a historically white award show that consistently favors white musicians. The international category, on the other hand, has consistently been dominated by nominees from Africa and those in the diaspora.

    The announcement took place on Monday, November 2nd. In a public statement, the Recording Academy wrote:

    “As we continue to embrace a truly global mindset, we update our language to reflect a more appropriate categorization that seeks to engage and celebrate the current scope of music from around the world”.

     

    This is how the Grammys describe the new category:

    “This category recognizes excellence in albums of world music, including recordings of international non-Western classical music, international non-American and non-British traditional folk music, international cross-cultural music based on the previously mentioned genres as well as international recordings of world beat, world jazz (with a higher percentage of world than jazz music), world pop and cross-cultural music.

    Albums of reggae, Latin or European pop music aren’t eligible in this category and should be entered in other categories as appropriate.”

    The “Best World Album” has previously been won by Brazilian artists five times––more than any other nationality. South Africa has won twice with ensemble group Ladysmith Black Mambazo clinching wins in both 2014 and 2018.

    Beninese artist Angelique Kidjo has been nominated nine times and won four times. This year, Kidjo went up against self-proclaimed African Giant Burna Boy and won. Kidjo then dedicated her “Best World Album” to Burna Boy who she claimed had never left his Nigerian roots.