Wiyaala has been invited to the GRAMMYs Recording Academy Class of 2022 – giving her an opportunity to celebrate, represent, and give back to the music and its creators.
“This invitation is a reflection of the Recording Academy’s commitment to excellence and further growing its robust membership body. The invitations also reaffirm the Recording Academy’s recognition of the important contributions of music people to influence progressive changes within the music industry,” a statement by GRAMMYs said
The Ghanaian Afro-pop singer-songwriter joins over 2,710 established music professionals from wide-ranging backgrounds, genres and disciplines to who have been invited to become voting members of the academy. This year’s invitees represent more than 13 different crafts and 22 different genres, with 56% coming from underrepresented communities.
Vice President of Membership and Industry Relations for the Academy, Kelley Purcell, welcomed the new invitees in a video and said: “Our new members symbolise the future of the academy and represent the direction we are heading in as an organization and the music community at large. As we continue to evolve, their fresh perspectives, suggestions, and observations help us advance in the right direction.
The Recording Academy’s director of member and outreach systems, Ashley Thomas, added that the new invitations symbolised “equality and equity” and continued “our commitment to creating a more welcoming and safe environment for all individuals across the industry.”
Nearly 3000 people were inducted into the Recording Academy last year, including British act Tiana Major9, Nigerian-American talent manager Jonathan Azu, Jamaican reggae singer Skip Marley, and Ghanaian dancehall and reggae singer Stonebwoy. In 2020, DJ and producer Juls, a British-Ghanaian, Bankulli and DJ Spinall, two musicians from Nigeria, joined the academy.
