- The Jollof Diary
- Posts
- GRAMMY 2024: What Does a 'Best African Music Performance' Nomination Mean for a Song?
GRAMMY 2024: What Does a 'Best African Music Performance' Nomination Mean for a Song?
We examine the impact on popularity and consumption of songs/artists BEFORE & AFTER their nomination. Did they see a spike in streams, or did did they maintain their pre-nomination daily averages?
On November 10th, the GRAMMY Awards announced songs that have been nominated in the newly-minted Best African Music Performance category. This category honours five outstanding songs from Africa released between Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 15, 2023.
The GRAMMYs have long been known as one of the most prestigious platforms for recognizing music excellence, not only within the United States but also globally. They have celebrated diverse genres like Latin Music, Reggae, and most recently, Afrobeats (as music from Sub-Saharan Africa is popularly called).
In the past, African artists have been included in the Best Global Music Album category, which encompasses music from various regions worldwide. So, this category has seen winners from countries like South Africa, Brazil, Ireland, India, and more. However, for the first time, there is a dedicated category solely for music from Africa.
Now, let's dive into the [digital] behavior surrounding these songs or artists before and after the announcement of their nomination. We'll explore whether there's any impact on their popularity and consumption. Did the nominated songs or artists experience a significant spike in streams, or did they maintain their pre-nomination daily averages?
Off the deluxe edition of Ayra Starr's debut album, "19 & Dangerous" the track "Rush" has become one of the defining songs of the 21-year-old’s run in the music industry. Before its announcement of being nominated for Best African Music Performance at the 2024 GRAMMYs, the song had already garnered over 280 million streams on Spotify. It consistently averaged 500,000+ global Spotify streams daily before its GRAMMY nod.
Following the GRAMMY announcement on November 10, “Rush”, currently sitting at 284 million+ streams, maintained its daily average - with a slight upward movement to about 540,000+ global streams on Spotify.
On YouTube, “Rush” had been averaging over 500,000+ global views daily with a total of 263 million+ views before the GRAMMY nomination was announced. Following the nomination, the song continued to maintain the same average of 500,000+ daily global views.
On Shazam, “Rush” had already accumulated over 7 million global Shazams before the GRAMMY nomination. It, however, maintains its daily average of 7,000+ global Shazams since the nomination, resulting in an overall of 7.78 million global Shazams to date.
Interestingly, there was a relative spike in Ayra Starr’s Wikipedia search/views compared to the days before to the GRAMMY nomination announcement. Previously, her Wikipedia page received an average of 1700 views daily. However, on the day of the GRAMMY nomination announcement (Nov 10), her page received over 2000 views, spilling over to following day (Nov. 11) with over 3000 views; her second-highest views in the past month.
In the days leading up to this story's publication, her Wikipedia page consistently maintained about 2000 views, surpassing the figures before the announcement of her GRAMMY nomination.
From the singer's fourth album, Timeless, which is also up for Best Global Music Album at the 2024 GRAMMYs; the lead single Unavailable is in the running for the first-ever Best African Music Performance award at the upcoming GRAMMYs.
Before the nomination, Unavailable was getting around 270,000 global streams daily on Spotify. However, after the nomination, there was a notable increase with an average of 300,000 daily streams for 2-3 days and then a jump on Nov 17 (500,000 streams) before returning to the regular figures.
Unavailable has since accumulated over 100 million streams on Spotify.
On YouTube, before announcement of the nomination, Unavailable earned an average of 200,000+ global views per day. Interestingly, after the nomination, the daily view range remains pretty similar to the prior period.
On Shazam, Unavailable had accumulated about 1.74 million Shazams globally, with an average of 2500-3000 Global daily Shazams. The days following the announcement of the nomination have seen a similar trajectory, maintaining the same level as before.
But then, there was an increase in Wikipedia views/searches for Davido after announcement of the GRAMMY nomination. Before the nomination, he averaged about 1500 global daily views on Wikipedia. But in the three days following the announcement, that number went up to an average of 2000 daily views and the days after still maintains higher figures than the days that led up to the nomination announcement.
Water, before the announcement of its GRAMMY nomination, rakes an average of 3 million global daily streams on Spotify. It, however, has maintained that same momentum even after the nomination. Since its release, the song has garnered over 174 million streams overall.
On YouTube, Water has reached a total of 49 million views so far, with over 300,000 daily views from all around the world. After the GRAMMY nomination announcement on November 10th, Water's daily views on YouTube remained steady at an average of 300,000+ views daily.
Since its release in July, Water has accumulated about 2.61 million Shazams. Before the GRAMMY nomination came along, the song was receiving an average of 40,000 Shazams per day. Despite the nomination, it has continued to maintain that same figure up until now.
Off Asake's sophomore album, Work Of Art, the song Amapiano has since amassed 39 million global streams on Spotify. Before its GRAMMY nomination, Amapiano was making waves with an average of 140,000 global streams daily on Spotify and it maintained this growth rate after its nomination.
On YouTube, Amapiano has reached a total of 21 million streams so far, with an average of 45,000 global daily streams. The days following its nomination for the forthcoming GRAMMYs have seen it maintain that same growth rate.
Similarly, on Shazam, Amapiano has raked over 570,000 global Shazams to date. Days before and after the announcement of its GRAMMY nomination, its streams moved between 900 and 1100 daily Shazams respectively. However, it has now reverted back to the former figure.
On Wikipedia, before the GRAMMY nomination, Asake was getting an average of 700 Wikipedia views. But after the announcement, that number increased to an average of 1100 views. Olamide, on the other hand, saw an average of 300 Wikipedia views before his nomination but following the announcement, that number went up to about 400.
City Boys, housed in Burna Boy’s eighth project, I Told Them, has garnered over 65 million global streams on Spotify. Before its GRAMMY nomination, it raked an average of 650,000 daily streams globally.
However, after the announcement of its nomination, there was a slight drop in its streaming numbers to an average of 550,000 global daily streams.
On YouTube, City Boys has reached 26 million overall streams, with an average of about 300,000 global daily streams. The momentum has remained steady between the days before and after its GRAMMY nomination announcement.
On Shazam, City Boys has accumulated about 1.19 million Shazams so far. It maintains a global daily average of 10,000 Shazams consistently, before and after its GRAMMY moments.
After the nomination, Burna Boy has also maintained a similar level of views on Wikipedia, compared to days prior. The daily average of views relating to him remained between 2700 and 3000.
Let's revisit this after the ceremony and see if there will be any significant boost!