When Tyla’s global hit “Push 2 Start” was announced as the winner of Best African Music Performance at the 68th Grammy Awards, Nigerian social media immediately erupted. Conversations quickly shifted from celebration to questioning the Grammys’ credibility.
On X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, outrage, disbelief, and accusations of robbery dominated the discourse. Many argued that Davido’s “With You”, featuring Omah Lay, was the clear and deserving winner, insisting that no other nominee in the category matched its impact. Some went further, claiming Tyla was “not Afrobeats,” that “Push 2 Start” was “not African enough,” and that the Grammys were once again playing politics with Nigerian excellence.
For many fans, the loss felt personal. Davido’s nomination followed months of high-profile visibility and capped a career that has arguably done as much as any to globalise Afrobeats. To lose again, after his 2024 Grammy loss to the same artiste, felt, to his supporters, like an insult to his greatness. But beneath the outrage lies a harder question Nigerians are often reluctant to confront: are we struggling to accept that African music is bigger than Nigeria?
This year’s backlash followed a familiar script. Influential voices weighed in swiftly. Popular radio presenter Osi Suave tweeted that Nigeria “makes the best music out of Africa” and “sells out stadiums across the globe,” concluding that despite these achievements, “we keep getting robbed.” Afrobeats singer Teni reflected this sentiment in a viral video, bluntly stating that Davido was robbed at the 2026 Grammys.
Producer and songwriter Cobhams Asuquo offered a more different critique in a video, arguing that the Grammys benefit economically from Nigeria’s vibrant music ecosystem while offering little in return. In his words, “When we show up, we show out. We rent hotels, buy drinks, buy clothes, we do all of these things. Then it’s like a carrot is dangling in front of us, and then the carrot goes away.”
These sentiments are not entirely baseless. Nigerian music has undeniably carried much of the global African soundscape. Nigerian artistes headline the world’s biggest stages, dominate streaming charts, and anchor the global Afrobeats narrative. Afrobeats’ rise is inseparable from Nigerian ambition, infrastructure, and cultural export. The frustration is understandable.
Still, understanding frustration does not mean endorsing every conclusion it produces. To assess this moment fairly, we must step outside fan logic and examine Grammy logic. The Best African Music Performance category is still young. Introduced in 2024, it has produced three winners so far: Tyla in 2024, Tems in 2025, and Tyla again in 2026.
This alone complicates claims that the category is anti-Nigerian. A Nigerian artiste won just last year. In fact, Nigerian artistes consistently receive the highest number of nominations in the category. In 2025, Nigerians dominated the nominee list entirely, occupying every slot. The door is clearly not closed.
More importantly, the Recording Academy has been explicit about what the category represents. According to the Recording Academy, the award “recognises recordings that utilise unique local expressions from across the African continent,” highlighting regional melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic traditions.
Crucially, the category is not limited to Afrobeats. It explicitly includes Amapiano, Afro-house, Highlife, Fuji, Kizomba, Bongo Flava, Genge, Ghanaian Drill, South African Hip-Hop, Ethio-Jazz, and many others. In other words, this award was never intended to be a Nigerian-only stage or an Afrobeats-exclusive contest. From its very definition, it exists to reflect Africa’s musical plurality, not to crown a single dominant sound.
Viewed through this lens, Tyla’s win becomes less controversial and more contextual. “Push 2 Start” did not only perform strongly across African platforms; it crossed into global playlists, secured consistent placements on Spotify’s Global charts, and registered impact on the Billboard Hot 100. This kind of cross-market visibility matters deeply to Grammy voters, who have historically favoured records that travel beyond their home territories.
Davido’s “With You” is emotionally resonant and culturally grounded, especially within Afrobeats spaces. But cultural significance and global reach have never been rewarded equally at the Grammys, and they never have been.
Perhaps the most revealing reaction to Tyla’s win was the claim that her music is “not African enough.” This argument collapses almost immediately. Tyla is South African, and Amapiano, the sound most associated with her work, is one of Africa’s most influential musical exports of the past decade. To dismiss her win because she operates outside a Nigerian-defined Afrobeats framework is cultural gatekeeping.
Africa has never had one sound. Nigerian music itself is a fusion of Ghanaian Highlife, Fuji, hip-hop, dancehall, and pop influences. To now police Africanness based on genre familiarity is deeply ironic. If Tems’ win in 2025 was rightly celebrated as a Nigerian moment, then Tyla’s win should be acknowledged as a continental one as well.
Ultimately, this moment is not about Davido losing. His legacy remains intact. He is undeniably one of Nigeria’s greatest musical exports. Nigerian music remains globally influential. What this moment truly reveals is the need for recalibration. African music does not advance by one country winning every award. It advances when multiple countries are visible, competitive, and celebrated on the world’s biggest stages.
The Grammys took nothing away from Nigeria this year, what they did was remind us of something we all know but seem not to accept or embrace: African music is bigger than Nigeria. The better and more productive answer is advocacy. The whole point of advocacy is to argue aggressively for the possibility and necessity of several African-based categories that accommodate the richness of Africa’s musical variety. It simply cannot be done with only one category. There is too much variety and range across Amapiano, Afrobeats, Ethio-Jazz, Genge, and Highlife.
If the Grammys are serious about becoming a truly global institution, not just an American awards show with international guests, then they need to broaden their view of how to honour African music.
Alternatively, and probably more importantly, we need to develop our own institutions. Such as a structured and credible African music awards. Credible and respected globally on our own terms. Not necessarily the alternative to the Grammys either. But an institution that represents our values, our ideas of what’s important, and our perception of what constitutes good music from the continent. Otherwise, we will continue having this same debate annually.