In 2020 Burna boy’s Grammy debut went from a celebration of the artist’s nomination to a trolling circus after the award was given to Angelique Kidjo instead of the African giant. Twitter NG was filled with tweets ridiculing the artist and claiming that the loss was ordained by heaven to curb his Ego.
A year later the artist released his masterpiece twice as tall and secured his Grammy win.
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Wizkid suffered the same loss yesterday after being nominated in two categories and losing both. Nigerians have since divided themselves between trolling the singer and trolling Angelique Kidjo for winning the award instead of our beloved Starboy.
I am personally not surprised that the award for Global album was awarded to Angelique Kidjo, she is a legend and her album addressed several issues concerning the continent including the End SARS issue on her song with Yemi Alade, as much as I wanted Wizkid to take home the award I knew and understood that it would be difficult to win that category.
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However, in the category where Wizkids Essence was nominated, it undoubtedly stood out as one of the most influential songs this year!!! The song went double platinum with over a hundred million streams!!! Every body loves Essence and what makes the loss worse is the fact that the song it lost to didn’t come close to making the impact that Essence did.
I however do not believe that this loss makes Wiz any less of a legend than he is. Wizkid has always raised the bar for Afrobeats and has continued to walk through doors that we didn’t know it was possible to walk through. He is one of the most influential artists of our generation and everyone of the new generation artists regardless of their genre looks up to him whether they are fans of his music or not. His brand has grown past just being another artist and he now represents the pinnacle of success for an African artist and he did all this before he won his first Grammy with Beyoncé. He has an amazing Discography, a total of 43 awards including one Grammy and his impact on African music will outlive him, whether the Grammys recognize his genius or not.
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The Grammy’s have always been tone deaf when it comes to celebrating true artistry and have failed to acknowledge the contribution of several musical legends like Snoop dogg (who has been nominated 19 times without winning), Fela Kuti,Tupac, J Cole and many more amazingly talented artists.Awards are not a measure of an artists genius or achievement or contribution to society.
