The award can be a vital platform for non-Western artists, such as this year’s winner Angélique Kidjo.
Now the Recording Academy has confirmed that it will be re-named, in order to “update our language” and mark “a departure from the connotations of colonialism…”
The award will now be named Best Global Music Album, and it follows the previously announced Grammy decision to ditch the ‘Urban’ tag across their awards.
“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 Recording Academy’s statement reads.
“Over the summer we held discussions with artists, ethnomusicologists, and linguists from around the world who determined that there was an opportunity to update the best world music album category toward a more relevant, modern, and inclusive term. The change symbolises a departure from the connotations of colonialism, folk, and ‘non-American’ that the former term embodied while adapting to current listening trends and cultural evolution among the diverse communities it may represent.”
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