Grammy Award Vs Billboard Hot 100, Which Is A Bigger Win For Afrobeat?

Forum 2 years ago

Grammy Award Vs Billboard Hot 100, Which Is A Bigger Win For Afrobeat?

Burna Boy and Wizkid seem to be the most celebrated afrobeat artists in the world at the moment after claiming Grammy awards and breaking into the Billboard Hot 100.

The Port-Harcourt-born singer and songwriter, Damini Ogulu who is best known as Burna Boy claimed the Best Global Album award at the latest Grammy award ceremony. He won this with his afrobeat album Twice As Tall.

Burna Boy who is arguably the hottest and most successful artist in Nigeria bagged his first-ever Grammys. On Sunday 14th March 2021, Burna Boy won the Best Global Album category at the 63rd Grammys's making him the first Nigerian afrobeat artist to win Grammys for that category.

Wizkid also won a Grammy award the same night with the video of his song with Beyonce, Saint JHN and Blue Ivy tagged Brown Skin Girl.

Despite having his name being called at the live show as one of the winners of the said award, Nigerian music fans argued that Wizkid won't be getting a plaque. So many people doubted if he won an actual award or a certificate for a while not until the Recording Academy sent him his plaque.

Months later, Wizkid's song Essence featuring Tems off his fourth studio album Made in Lagos cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and has currently peaked #72 making him the first African artist to do that as a lead singer.

Now there is another argument as to which will have a better impact on Afrobeat.

Billboard is basically ranked songs by airplay, streams, and sales in the US which means that Wizkid 'Essence' is currently the 72nd biggest song in the states.

Between the Billboard Hot 100 and the Grammy Award, which one do you think will have more impact on the journey of Afrobeat to global dominance?