For most of Grammy history, African wins were rare. Since 2020, African artists have won Grammys every year, and in 2024 the Recording Academy created a category just for African music. Here are the African Grammy winners of the 2020s and their biggest wins, year by year.
2020: Angélique Kidjo dedicates her win to Burna Boy
Benin’s Angélique Kidjo won Best World Music Album at the 62nd Grammys in January 2020 for Celia. Burna Boy’s African Giant was nominated in the same category, and Kidjo dedicated her win to him for changing how the world sees Africa and its music.
2021: Burna Boy wins Best Global Music Album
Burna Boy‘s Twice as Tall won Best Global Music Album, the renamed World Music category, at the 63rd Grammy Awards on 15 March 2021. Kenya’s Sauti Sol, who worked on the album, shared in a Grammy certificate.
2021: Wizkid wins for “Brown Skin Girl”
The same night, Wizkid won his first Grammy, for Best Music Video, for his part in Beyoncé’s “Brown Skin Girl”.
2022: Black Coffee wins in dance
South Africa’s Black Coffee won Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 64th Grammys for Subconsciously (2021). It was a rare win for an African artist outside the global music categories.
2022: Kidjo wins again
Angélique Kidjo won Best Global Music Album again in 2022, for Mother Nature.
2023: Tems wins with Future and Drake
Tems won Best Melodic Rap Performance for Future and Drake’s “Wait for U”, which is built on her song “Higher”. She was the first Nigerian woman to win a Grammy.
2023: Zakes Bantwini and “Bayethe”
South Africa’s Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode, with the flautist Wouter Kellerman, won Best Global Music Performance for “Bayethe”.
2023: A new African category
In June 2023 the Recording Academy announced Best African Music Performance. It said the award honours recordings that use “unique local expressions from across the African continent”. It named Davido, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Rema, CKay, Tems, Zakes Bantwini, Tyler ICU and Nomcebo Zikode among the artists who had raised African music’s profile.
2024: Tyla wins the first one
Tyla won the first Best African Music Performance for “Water” at the 66th Grammys. At 22 she became the youngest African artist to win a Grammy. Ayra Starr was nominated for “Rush” and Davido for “Unavailable”.
2025: Tems wins for “Love Me JeJe”
Tems won Best African Music Performance for “Love Me JeJe” and became the first Nigerian artist with more than one Grammy. She had three nominations that year, the most of any African act.
2026: Tyla wins it again
At the 68th Grammys, Tyla won Best African Music Performance again, for “Push 2 Start”, ahead of Ayra Starr, Burna Boy, Davido and Eddy Kenzo. She is the only artist to have won the category twice.
The scorecard
Tyla and Tems have two Grammys each in the 2020s. So does Angélique Kidjo. Burna Boy, Wizkid, Black Coffee, Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode each have one. Burna Boy has also been nominated for Best African Music Performance, including for “Higher” in 2025.
Where to start
“Water”, “Love Me JeJe”, “Push 2 Start” and Twice as Tall. The 2020s have been Africa’s Grammy decade.
