The category introduced in 2023 has been pulled from the VMAs have pulled . This means Rema and Tyla are the only winners for “Best Afrobeats” in its three-year standing.

Nominees were revealed for various categories, but observers noticed the missing “Best Afrobeats”. MTV has not explained why. Best Group, Best Rock, Best Album, and Song of the Summer are other categories are also absent this year.

Rema won the first year of its introduction in 2023, with the remix of “Calm Down” featuring Selena Gomez. Tyla won the next two consecutive years, with “Water”and “Push 2 Start”. 

There are mixed views with MTV’s decision, such as it being a sign of regression in African music recognition. Others commend the choice for removing its afrobeats misrepresentation, as the category included Amapiano singer, Tyla. While the introduction of Afrobeats across Western music awards is historic, there are calls for organisers to know the difference between African music and afrobeats.

What is Afrobeats?

Afrobeats describes West Africa and its diaspora’s pop music. The genre is a mix of hip-hop, pop, and jazz influences with traditional West African percussion and rhythm. On the other hand, amapiano is a South-African genre that is a hybrid of house, jazz, and kwaito. 

Although the two genres originate from the same continent, its sound is distinctively different. There can be a merge, such as the afropiano genre, as well as genre-crossing collaborations between producers and singers.

Though music in the 21st century has evolved to create hybrid genres, or even reject genres, afrobeats enjoyers disagree with how Western music awards discern songs to nominate. The Billboard Music Awards stopped its “Best Afrobeats Song” after its second year in 2024, which Tyla won. The American Music Awards’ “Best Afrobeats Artist” also includes Tyla, who has won two consecutive years. The Grammys has “Best African Music Performance” introduced in 2024 with Tyla and Tems as its winners so far.

Afrobeats to Global

Despite “Best Afrobeats” absence, Burna Boy and Tems are two Nigerian artists that are nominated for other categories. Burna Boy earned two nominations for Best Collaboration and Best Latin, from his collaboration with Shakira for “Dai Dai”. Meanwhile, Tems is nominated for Best RnB for her collaboration with British rapper Dave on the song “Raindance”. 

While MTV has yet to explain why this change has been made, this does not mean African artists are not increasingly popular.

Tems and Burna Boy notably are among many African artists appearing in other music scenes, showing a diversifying global audience. Tyla’s latest album A*POP is in the top 75 of the Official Album Charts with over 600 million streams on Spotify, and currently has 29 million Spotify listeners. Meanwhile, Rema, has over 26 million.

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Written by Ejemen