New Grammy Categories Include Africa-Specific Music Prize

The Recording Academy said on Tuesday that the 2024 Grammy Awards would include new categories, one of which is for the best performance of African music.

The 66th edition of the prestigious music awards will honour a song that uses "unique local expressions from across the African continent," in addition to giving trophies to the Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance song.

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Instead of being determined by a small, exclusive group of voters, the non-classical Producer of the Year and Songwriter of the Year categories will now be decided by all voters.

The adjustments come after several years of Grammy category reorganizations as the academy strives to assuage complaints that its award selections are exclusive and don't take into account changes in the music business.

Last year the body handed out a prize for Best Video Game Soundtrack, and created the long lobbied-for Songwriter of the Year prize, which is open to working songwriters who are not also performing or producing artists.

In 2020, the Los Angeles-based institution made a number of category name swaps, including changing the controversial "urban contemporary" to "progressive R&B."

The new award honoring African music recordings is genre-spanning, the academy said, and includes but is not limited to Afrobeat, High Life, Bongo Flava, Ghanaian Drill and Ethio Jazz.

Songs from African musicians have long dominated the academy's "global music" categories, with artists including Angelique Kidjo and Burna Boy making regular appearances.

The new category appears to be a bid to better acknowledge the impact of music from the African continent on international trends.

"These changes reflect our commitment to actively listen and respond to the feedback from our music community, accurately represent a diverse range of relevant musical genres, and stay aligned with the ever-evolving musical landscape," said Harvey Mason Jr, head of the Recording Academy, in a statement.