Here Are the 5 Songs Nominated For the First-Ever African Grammy Award

At this year’s Grammy ceremonies, the Recording Academy will hand out the first gilded gramophone for Best African Music Performance. Announced early last year, the new category recognizes the consistently growing importance of African music in the global pop music landscape.

The inaugural set of nominees for the first-ever Best African Music Performance award include five of the biggest and most important songs of the year in review: Tyla's “Water,” Ayra Starr's “Rush," Burna Boy's “City Boys,” Davido's “UNAVAILABLE” and Asake & Olamide's “Amapiano.”

Learn more about each nominated song below.

Tyla "Water"

Tyla's “Water” is centered on sexual desire, strictly presented from a woman’s point-of-view. The instantly memorable hook, “Make me sweat, make me hotter / make me lose my breath, make me water,” is a short litany of thinly-veiled commands; a sequence best suited for women to belt out loud. Tyla confidently struts amidst shimmering keys, a bouncy percussion pattern and amapiano log drum embellishments, effortlessly dialing the temperature up and down by flowing between fluttery falsetto runs and smooth melodies. Then there’s the dance, influenced by the Bacardi dance trend of vibrating hips, winding waists and twisting ankles. As an artist with a worldly view, incorporating pop music aesthetics and R&B melodies into her music, dancing is Tyla’s most explicit tether to her South African roots.

Read more: How Tyla's "Water" Placed Tyla on the Path to Global Superstardom

Ayra Starr "Rush"

Throughout Ayra Starr’s ascent into the upper echelon of Afrobeats stardom, her 2022 single “Rush” best captures her moment of assertion. Where earlier standouts like “Bloody Samaritan” and “Fashion Killa,” off her debut album 19 & Dangerous, were showy statements, “Rush” was an instant proclamation. It’s the work of an artist who has now fully bought into her own hubris. Whether you believed her raps or not was inconsequential, Ayra Starr very much did, and that was the most important thing. The pidgin-sung hook in "Rush" is now a part of everyday Nigerian lexicon. Describing abundance, or alluding to abundance in a teasing context, “E dey rush” is the perfect example of how a catchy line becomes pop culture fixture, and helps elevate a beloved star into a charismatic figure.

Read more: Ayra Starr's "Rush" Is Her Crowning Moment

Davido "UNAVAILABLE" feat. Musa Keys

For an artist who’s virtually ultra-accessible, especially with a raucous and often hilarious online presence, there’s a tinge of paradox in the runaway hit song, “UNAVAILABLE.” In the era of increased visual curation among popular figures, Davido has always come across as unfiltered and very much available. His tiffs are public fair, his many charity works are widely heralded, and he’s provided a lot of meme-able moments, and all of that adds up to what makes him so beloved by his stans. At the same time, it’s the absence of any pretense that makes “UNAVAILABLE” an authentic declaration. It’s as plain as it gets, Davido setting the stakes for himself as a person, without any concerns for society’s expectations. The hook, demanding to be sung at lung-bursting levels, is a pure and self-explanatory salvo: “I’m unavailable, dem no dey see me.”

Read more: Davido's Authenticity Is His Superpower in "UNAVAILABLE"

Burna Boy "City Boys"

The notion that Burna Boy is one of the most important proponents in Afrobeats’ global growth and dominance is undeniable. I Told Them..., Burna Boy’s summer 2023 album, is a self-serving show of greatness, a victory lap that’s entirely boisterous and greatly enjoyable, only dulled by momentary lapses into megalomania. Burna is at his most effective when he’s simply enjoying the spoils of stardom, as evidenced in the hedonist romp and infectious stomp of “City Boys,” a song in which his libidinous urges and lavish impulses combine to form a larger-than-life portrait of a rockstar in his element.

Read more: Burna Boy Is the Afrobeats Rockstar of Our Time In "City Boys"

Asake & Olamide "Amapiano"

On the smash hit song “Amapiano,” Nigeria's Asake oscillates between boastful co-opting and nebulous homage to the South African dance genre. It makes sense that such a song would come from the Lagos-raised artist, whose sonic identity has been largely defined by working the compositional ticks of amapiano and deep house into a neo-Fuji aesthetic. In collaboration with primary producer Magicsticks, the duo have successfully carved out a distinct sound with notable yet dynamic tricks. Setting aside cultural narrative, “Amapiano” is as inch-perfect as a masterfully-cut diamond piece. It’s representative of a new apex for Asake as a song-maker, littered with gleaming melodies made for belting out loud, caption-ready lines that stick to the roof of your brain from first listen, and a heater of a guest appearance from YBNL label boss Olamide. Rang in by an ear-catching metallic synth riff, it’s nearly three minutes of pure awesomeness.

Read: Asake & Olamide Flaunt Their Party-Starting Prowess In "Amapiano"