The Recording Academy has announced that Grammys ‘Best World Music Album’ category, a category won by legendary Beninese singer Anjelique Kidjo three times in a row, will now be called ‘Best Global Music Album’.
Best World Music Album category was created in 1991 and first awarded in 1992, then a brief split into Best Traditional World Music Album and Best Contemporary World Music Album between 2004 and 2011.
According to the Recording Academy, the change was pushed to better show cultural sensitivity. “As we continue to embrace a truly global mindset, we update our language to reflect a more appropriate categorization that seeks to engage and celebrate the current scope of music from around the world”, the statement read.
Discussions with artists, ethnomusicologists and linguists around the world helped to determine the decision, with the change symbolising “a departure from the connotations of colonialism, folk and ‘non-American’ that the former term embodied”.
This is coming a few months after the Academy announced major changes to some awards categories, rules, and nomination process, with Best Urban Contemporary Album being renamed to Best Progressive r&b Album and Best Rap/Sung Performance to Best Melodic Rap performance.
