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Long overdue: Highlife at the Grammys — Abiana

Abiana, a member of HIGHLIFE, is overjoyed, along with her colleagues in the music industry and many Ghanaians, at the Recording Academy of the United States' (US) acceptance of Highlife music; Nevertheless, she thinks it was long overdue.


At the Grammy Awards this year, on June 13, 2023, the Drill and Highlife music genres from Ghana were announced as relevant African music styles for the Best African Music P
erformance category.

One of the three new slots for the prestigious music awards program's 2024 edition is the Best African Music Performance category. The Best Pop Dance Recording and the Best Alternative Jazz Album are the other two.

The Recording Academy of the United States bestows the Grammy Awards to honor outstanding accomplishments in the music industry. They are widely regarded as the music industry's most prestigious and significant awards.

Abiana, the 2021 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) winner for Best Female Vocal Performance, said yesterday in an interview with Graphic Showbiz that Highlife music had spread around the world, with artists like Osibisa and Ebo Taylor becoming global music icons. This indicates that the genre achieved international recognition and repute a very long time ago.

She supported the call for Ghanaian musicians to have a collective identity for their music and said that the Grammy recognition was good news despite the fact that Highlife's progress had not been well-received internationally in recent years.

We are all grateful for this recognition, which has been long overdue. Who, then, is to blame? We must accept our responsibility as stakeholders to vigorously promote what we have.

Yes, there is a continuing debate about Ghana's need for an identity in terms of what our music should be called. However, I believe that Ghanaians are most proud of their Highlife music.

Highlife has done a lot for Ghana in the past, as evidenced by Osibisa and Rocky Dawuni's The Voice of Bunbon, which was nominated for a Grammy in the Global Music category. This demonstrates that Highlife is present whenever Ghana gains global recognition for its music, but we are not branding it.

She stated, "We need to return to it and then as artistes, deliberately call ourselves Highlife musicians so that the brand will be recognized worldwide."

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