The winners of the 65th annual Grammy Awards were announced at a premiere ceremony live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday (February 5th).
Tems won a Grammy for “Best Melodic Rap Performance” for her appearance and participation on Future and Drake’s “Wait For U” single. The 2022 track won out over songs from other artists, including Jack Harlow (“First Class”), Kendrick Lamar (“Die Hard”), Latto (“Big Energy (Live)”), and DJ Khaled (“Beautiful”). The Tems-sampling track landed on Future’s album I Never Liked You, released in 2022.
In addition to her nomination, Tems was also up for Best Rap Song with “Wait For U” and Album of the Year for her work on Beyoncé’s Renaissance. The win marked the Nigerian-based singer’s first career Grammy and made her the first Nigerian female artist to win the most coveted artist trophy.
Elsewhere, Burna Boy, who already has a Grammy to his credit with 2021’s Twice As Tall, did not win any of the categories he was nominated in at this year’s ceremony. He lost the Best Global Music Performance award with his crossover success “Last Last” to Wouter Kellerman, Zake Bantwini, and Nomcebo Zikode’s “Bayethe,” and the Best Global Music Album award with “Love, Damini” to “Sakura” by Masa Takumi.
Rocky Dawuni, the most nominated Ghanaian artiste (3) at the GRAMMYS, also lost the Best Global Music Performance award with his Blvk H3ro-assisted “Neva Bow Down” to Wouter Kellerman, Zake Bantwini, and Nomcebo Zikode’s “Bayethe.” Grammy’s most-awarded African artist (5), Angelique Kidjo’s collaborative LP “Queen Of Sheba” lost the Best Global Music Album category to “Sakura” by Masa Takumi.
The Grammy Awards were first held in 1959 to honour “artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position.” Presented by Grammy oversight body the Recording Academy, the award for world music was first awarded in 1992.
