The Grammy Awards took place last night at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. Among those nominated were Nigerian artists including Asake, Ayra Starr, Olamide, Davido and Burna Boy all nominated across three categories. None of these artists went on to take home the highly coveted prize and as expected the vast majority of Nigerians are still unhappy. Those who are ignorant of the award process have gone as far as claiming the organizers were bias. The question begging for answer remains how were the results arrived at?

The answer to the above lies with those behind the Grammy awards-The Recording Academy. This is the world’s leading music society, comprising of musicians, producers, sound engineers and many other musical professionals across the world. There are three types of membership but the award process is exclusive to voting members alone. Such persons must have applied and been admitted after thorough screening and recommendations.

Interestingly, the Grammy is the only music award in which nominees and winners are determined by music creators themselves. The process begins with submission of records and/or albums. To be eligible, recordings must be released during the specified window (in this case 1st October, 2022 to 15th September, 2023). Typically, around 20,000 entries are submitted annually, these entries will be screened by the Academy’s award and screening committees to ensure submissions are made in their correct categories.

The next stage involves the first round of voting which determines Nominees for the award. Voting members express their choices on a secured online ballot, the categories they vote on are determined by their areas of expertise. At the end of the exercise, five finalists or eight for some categories emerge as nominees.

Finally, the second and last round of voting produce the winners of all categories who are presented with their awards on the night of the award ceremony. So no, there wasn’t a board meeting in a conference room to pick Grammy recipients. Results of voting were based on impact and quality of music submitted, as decided by competent professionals.

Asake, Olamide, Davido and Ayra Starr all earned their first nominations courtesy of the new African Music Performance category, Davido also being nominated in two other categories. The African Giant himself bagged four nominations.

Unfortunately, Nigerian artists were unable to best their fellow nominees in their respective groups. It's noteworthy to mention that Burna boy lost his first Grammy nomination yet went on to win it the next year. So, it’s definitely not the end of the road for our incredibly talented artists but in fact a stepping stone to the overwhelming success that awaits.