List of Nigerian Grammy Award Nominees and Winners

The Grammys is the pinnacle of music, it is every musicians’ dream to get nominated for or win a Grammy Award. A nomination is a recognition of the talent or effort an artist has put into a particular song or an album. Nigeria is a big music country with a lot of artists known worldwide, surprisingly only a few has been nominated for the Grammy Award or had the chance to win one.

In this post, we list all Nigerian Grammy Award nominees and winners.

Nigerian Grammy Award Nominees and Winners

An artist could either receive a nomination from the Recording Academy via an original work or through minor contributions to a foreign work. Both categories for Nigerian Grammy Award nominees and winners are outlined below:

Nominees and Winners for Original Work

• King Sunny Ade – The legendary Nigerian musician was nominated in 1984 in the Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording category for his Syncro System album and was also nominated again in 1999 in the Best World Music Album for his Odu album.
• Sade – The Nigerian-British singer has won the Grammy Award four times. She won in the Best New Artist category in 1986, Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal category for her No Ordinary Love song in 1994, Best Pop Vocal Album category for her Lovers Rock album in 2002; and in the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals category for her Soldier of Love single in 2011. She was nominated in 1987 in the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal category for her Promise album and also in 1995 for her Please Send Me Someone to Love blues ballad song. In 2002, she was nominated in the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance category for her By Your Side song and again in 2011 in the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals category for her Baby father single.
• Babatunde Olatunji – The late Nigerian drummer got a Grammy Nomination in 1998 in the Best World Music Album category for his Love Drum Talk.
• Femi Kuti – The son of the legendary Fela Kuti, Femi has been nominated for the Grammy four times. He was nominated in 2003 in the Best World Music Album category for his Fight to Win album, in 2010 in the Best Contemporary World Music Album category for his Day by Day album, in 2012 in the Best World Music Album for his Africa for Africa album and again in 2014 for his No Play for My Dream album.
• Seun Kuti – Youngest son of the legendary Fela, Seun got his sole nomination in 2018 in the Best World Music Album category for his Black Times album.
• Burna Boy – The self-proclaimed African giant was nominated in 2020 in the Best World Music Album category and got another nomination again in the same category for his Twice as Tall album in November 2020. He could yet be a winner in that category with the 63^rd Grammy Awards set to take place January 31, 2020.

Nominees and Winners for Minor Contributions to Foreign Work

• Sikiru Adepoju – The percussionist got a nomination in 2009 in the Best Contemporary World Music album category courtesy of his contributions to the Global Drum Project album by Various artists.
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – The writer got a nomination in 2015 in the Album of the Year category courtesy of her contribution to the Beyonce album by Beyonce.
• Wizkid – The singer got a nomination in 2017 in the Album of the Year category courtesy of his contribution to the Views album by Drake. He was nominated again in November 2020 in the Best Music Video category for his contribution to the Brownskin girl song by Beyonce.
• Kah-lo – The singer got a nomination in 2017 in the Best Dance Recording category courtesy of his contribution to the Rinse & Repeat song by Riton.
• Timaya – The singer got a nomination in 2018 in the Best Reggae Album category courtesy of his contribution to the Avrakedabra album by Morgan Heritage.
• Burna Boy – The singer got a nomination in 2019 in the Best Rock Album category courtesy of his contribution to the Mania album by Fall Out Boy.

So far, those are the Nigerian Grammy Award nominees and winners at the moment.

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