Voting is now closed for all categories in the 65th Annual Grammy Awards set to take place on Sunday, February 5, 2023, in Los Angeles.
Five Jamaicans were nominated in the Best Reggae Album category:
Two time Grammy winner Shaggy was nominated for “Come Fly With Me, Sinatra Songbook”, Protoje’s Third Time’s The Charm, 2020’s winner Koffee’s Gifted, Sean Paul, Island Records debut Scorcha and first time nominee Kabaka Pyramid’s The Kalling, produced by Damian Marley are among 2023 contenders for music’s most coveted trophy.
Blvck Hero is the single Jamaican nominated for Best Global Performance for his feature on Neva Bow Down by Rocky Dawuni. Other nominees in that category are Last Last by Burna Boy, Gimme Love by Matt B & Eddy Kenzo, Udhero Na by Arooj aftab & Anoushka Shankar, Bayethe by Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini & Nomcebo Zikode.
As competition heightens for the reggae category, in the absence of another singles category for the genre, this year several Jamaicans submitted their dancehall and reggae singles in the Global Music categories for the 2023 Grammy Nominations. Submissions were also made in the Record Of The Year category.
A submissions list obtained by WMV, showed that multi-platinum producer Jonfx’s afrobeat infused Yey Yey Yey is submitted for Best Global Music Performance.
The Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album and Best Global Music Performance are presented to recording artists for influential music from around the globe at the Grammy Awards.
Pull Up By Koffee was also submitted in that category.
“Jane” by Skip Marley & Ayra Starr was submitted for Global Performance of The Year as well as Record Of The Year. Spice submitted several songs from her independent album Emancipated for the Best Global Music Category including Tape Measure, Werk and Clap Clap.
Shenseea’s Lick with Megan Thee Stallion was submitted for Record Of The Year. If nominated it would have placed Shenseea and Megan’s controversial single, in competition with top hit makers Adele and Nicki Minajwas not nominated for any award although she submitted Super Freaky Girl and several other songs.
This year’s nominees for Record Of The Year were:
“Don’t Shut Me Down,” by Abba, “Easy on Me,” by Adele, “Break My Soul,” by Beyoncé, “Good Morning Gorgeous,” by Mary J. Blige, “You and Me on the Rock,” by Brandi Carlile featuring Lucius, “Woman,” by Doja Cat, “Bad Habit,”by Steve Lacy, “The Heart Part 5,” by Kendrick Lamar, “About Damn Time,” by Lizzo
and “As It Was,” by Harry Styles.
Burna Boy’s ‘Love, Damini’ which features the track T.A.S with Popcaan was submitted for Album of The Year as well as DJ Khaled’s “God Did’ which features Bounty Killer, Sizzla, Skillibeng and Capleton.
This year’s Album Of The Year nominees are: “Voyage,” by Abba, “30,” by Adele, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” by Bad Bunny, “Renaissance,” by Beyoncé, “Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe),” by Mary J. Blige, “In These Silent Days,” by Brandi Carlilem “Music of the Spheres,” by Coldplay, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” by Kendrick Lamar, “Special,”by Lizzo and “Harry’s House,” by Harry Styles.
God Did was nominated for Rap Album of The Year. The single of the same name by Djkaled featuring Rick Rossm Lil Wayne, Jay Z, John Legend and Fridayy is nominated for Best Rap Performance. Beautify by Dj Khaled is nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance as well.
Nigerian singer Tems is nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance for her feature on Drake and Future’s Wait For You. Overall she walked away with three nominations for her work on Beyoncé’s Renaissance album which is nominated for Album Of The Year.
The Grammys added several new categories this year including:
Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical
Recognizes the written excellence, profession and art of songwriting honoring the most prolific non-performing and non-producing songwriters for their body of new work released during an eligibility year.
Best Alternative Music Performance
A track and single Category that recognizes the best recordings in an alternative performance by a solo artist, collaborating artists, established duo, or established group.
Best Americana Performance
A track and single Category that recognizes artistic excellence in an Americana performance by a solo artist, collaborating artists, established duo, or established group.
Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media
Recognizes excellence in score soundtrack albums comprised predominantly of original scores and created specifically for, or as a companion to a current video game or other interactive media released within the qualification period.
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album
An album Category that recognizes excellence in spoken word albums specific to the performance of poetry with or without music.
SPECIAL MERIT AWARD ADDITION:
Best Song For Social Change This Special Merit Award will be determined by a Blue Ribbon Committee and ratified by the Recording Academy Board of Trustees. Submissions must contain lyrical content that addresses a timely social issue and promotes understanding, peace building and empathy.
Over the years there has been reports in Jamaican media from US based Grammy voting members, that the reggae category has been under threat and could be removed from the awards, and that it makes no sense to even consider asking The Academy to include a separate Dancehall category at the Grammys. I asked him about the truth of those assertions and Harvey says that is far from the truth and indeed reggae has had many good submissions over the years.
“No, we’ve had really good submissions in the reggae category, I think over the last 5 years we’ve had almost 700 submissions. Last year we had I believe 70 or 75, so it’s down a little bit this year, for the most part we’ve had really good numbers in that category and we don’t arbitrarily decide which categories to implement or to remove, its all based on submissions and if you get good submissions in the category there will be no purpose for us to remove it,” Harvey confirmed.
As for whether there will ever be a dancehall category, Harvey says,
“We have worked really hard over the last two years to include more music not less…we want more people from more genres, from more regions and make sure we are honoring them properly. It’s possible only because anything is possible.” He added that the way to do it is to propose it properly to the Recording Academy through a voting process.
“When it comes to categories it just depends on who submits. If the dancehall community wanted its own category and they felt so strongly about it- and the stakeholders in that category felt like ‘we want to have our own category’, and they submit it and they have the right language in the proposal, the right rationale as to why its important and they get the right signers and the right language and justification, you will have a new category.”
Although the Grammys are a US based awards show, it’s one music organization that has a global impact. I asked Harvey if he would ever consider bringing the Grammy Awards outside of the US to which he said ‘Yes’.
“I think we would consider that, there is a lot of opportunities, borders are coming down. With music you are seeing people come together and people from all different parts of the world loving other genres. Jamaica having Taylor(Swift) with the number 1 record is an amazing example of that, so where we have our show could change, where we honor music might widen. There might be a chance to do more work in serving music people around the world. There is a saying that talent is distributed evenly around the world but opportunity is not so, that would say to us we might need to take a look at other parts of the world, where we could have events,” he predicts.
Watch the exclusive conversation with Harvey Mason Jr. on World Music Views YouTube below:
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