For Your Consideration: The African and Diaspora Artists Campaigning for the 2027 Grammys

Every autumn, Instagram fills with gold gramophones. “For Your Consideration” posts are the polite, public face of Grammy campaigning: a way for artists and labels to remind the Recording Academy’s voting members what they released this year. With nominations for the 2027 Grammys announced on Monday 16 November and the ceremony on 7 February at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, the campaign season is at its peak.

A submission is not a nomination. It is a statement of intent, and this year’s African and diaspora campaigns say a lot about how wide the conversation has become, from amapiano and Afrobeats to Moroccan reggaeton.

TxC, Davido, Shoday and Scotts Maphuma: “Nakupenda”

The South African DJ duo TxC, Tarryn Reid and Clairise Hefke, have submitted “Nakupenda” for Best African Music Performance and Song of the Year. Featuring Davido, Shoday and Scotts Maphuma, with Zlatan and Al Xapo, it borrows its title from the Swahili for “I love you” and reads like a map of the continent’s dancefloors. TxC, who won Best New International Act at the 2025 BET Awards, are signed to LVRN, and the campaign shows how seriously their US team is pushing them.

Victony: STARLIFE and “SLICK”

Victony is aiming highest. The Nigerian singer has put himself forward for Best New Artist, with his second album STARLIFE, released on 21 August, submitted for Album of the Year and Best Global Music Album. Its standout single “SLICK,” which topped the UK Afrobeats chart, is in contention for Best African Music Performance, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It is an ambitious slate, and a sign of how far the singer has travelled since his 2024 debut, Stubborn.

MOLIY: BADDIES <3 MOLIY and “Body Go”

For Ghana‘s MOLIY, the year has been a coronation. Her project BADDIES <3 MOLIY, released on gamma. in August, is submitted for Best Global Music Album, while “Body Go,” her collaboration with Tyla, is up for Best African Music Performance. The song reached No. 8 on Billboard’s US Afrobeats Songs chart and No. 2 on the UK Afrobeats chart, and it pairs her with the category’s very first winner. MOLIY already knows the scale of a global hit: “Shake It to the Max (Fly)” with Silent Addy and its remix have passed a billion streams.

DYSTINCT: “YAMA”

The most interesting campaign may be DYSTINCT’s. The Belgian-Moroccan singer, born Iliass Mansouri in Mortsel, has submitted himself for Best New Artist and “YAMA” for Best Global Music Performance. Released in October 2025, the song fuses reggaeton grooves with Iraqi shoubi accents, and it charted across the Middle East and North Africa. His team calls the campaign a proud moment for Moroccan music on the global stage, and it is a reminder that Africa’s contenders are not only coming from the south and west of the continent.

What happens next

Best African Music Performance is now in its fourth year, and the competition for its five slots is fiercer than ever. Next Monday will show which of these campaigns turned into nominations. Whatever the result, the spread of names, genres and countries tells its own story: African music no longer arrives at the Grammys as a single sound. It arrives as many.