The Nigeria ruling party, All Progressives Congress (Proud APC celebrates Wizkid and Burna for winning Grammys under Buhari) has congratulated Nigerian Afrobeat sensations Wizkid boy and Burna on winning their first ever Grammy awards.
The awards was held on Sunday night.
The 63rd edition of the awards witnessed Burna Boy and Wizkid win The Best Music Video and Best Global Music Album, respectively.
The APC felicitated with both singers via a tweet saying, “We celebrate Nigeria music afrobeat stars Damini Ogulu @burnaboy and Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun @wizkidayo on their #GrammyAwards. The best is yet to come.”
An APC spokesman also reacting to the Nigerian artistes’ feat described it as a good sign of how the Buhari administration has taken the Nigerian entertainment industry to a greater height.
The Best Music Video and Best Global Music Album wins respectively marked their first career Grammy.
Burna Boy is the first winner of the recently renamed category, formerly called the Best World Music category.
Wizkid won as a featured artist on Beyoncé’s ‘Brown Skin Girl’ alongside Saint Jhn and Blue-Ivy Carter.
Other Nigerian artistes such as Tiwa Savage, Femi Kuti, and Made Kuti got nods for their contributions to Coldplay’s Everyday Life nominated for Album of The Year.
Femi and Made were featured on ‘Arabesque’ where Femi Kuti played a solo, and Tiwa Savage worked on ‘Eko.’
Nigeria’s social media scene went ecstatic over the wins, quickly topping trend tables over the recognition of Afrobeats on a global scale.
Afrobeat, also known as Afro-pop, is used to describe popular music genre from West Africa, made popular by Nigeria, Ghana, and the UK between 2000 and 2010.
Through artistes like Davido, Burna Boy, and Wizkid garnering accolades and critical acclaims from the global music community, international musicians like Beyoncé, Jay Z, Kanye West, Diddy, Drake, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B have supported Afrobeat, turning the world’s eyes on Africa.
It heavily features various elements of West Africa’s fuji music and highlife. In its development, it was infused with American jazz, soul, and funk.
Central to the music are vocals, complex intersecting rhythms, and percussion, popularised by multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti.
