Nairobi News

As you go about your day on social media, you may have encountered several Kenyan artists, such as Victoria Kimani and Octopizzo, posting about their music receiving consideration for the Grammy Awards.

What you might not see them sharing is the amount of money they might have had to pay to submit their music for consideration for the prestigious Grammy Awards 2025.
The Grammy’s are considered the highest honor in music because they are the only peer-voted awards in the industry.

Receiving Grammy consideration is always the first step towards competing for this prestigious music award, presented by the Recording Academy.
Nomination means that an artist has submitted an entry, paid the required entry fee, and met all the necessary submission criteria, including the originality of their music, and is now eligible for the first round of voting by Recording Academy members to determine the nominees.

Now that the submission window for the 2025 Grammy Awards has closed, over the next two weeks those artists who have been considered, including Octoppizo and Ms Kimani, will go through the first round of voting by Academy members and hope to be nominated.
The official nominees following the first round of voting are expected to be announced early next month, with around five entries shortlisted in each category.

In 2022, the Academy announced an introduction of a multi-tiered pricing strategy, to encourage members to submit their entries early enough to avoid the last-minute rush as it had witnessed in the
previous years.

The new fee structure introduced an ‘Early Bird’ fee of $40 (Sh5,000) for those who submitted their entries between (18 July – 31 July) when the submission window opened. The ‘Standard Fee’ pricing of $75 (Sh10,000) for those who submitted their entries between 1 August and 21 August and a ‘Final Deadline Fee’ pricing of $125 (Sh16,000) for last-minute rush submitters. The fee is non-refundable, even if an entry is not shortlisted.

In a memo announcing the new fees to all its professional and voting members, the Academy said all its members will be allowed to make five courtesy entries per year as a benefit of membership. However, members will have to pay a fee for each entry over and above the five allowed.
Previously, there was no limit on the number of entries a member could make.
Explaining its reasoning, the Academy said;
“The Academy instituted a per-entry fee structure this year to encourage entrants to consider the value of each entry and make thoughtful decisions to submit work they truly believe is Grammy-worthy,”.

The Academy has over 16,000 members who pay an annual fee of $100 (Sh13,000) each, of which 13,000 form the voting block.

Also Read: Here’s Kenyan musicians’ golden chance for the Grammys

In the Best African Music Performance category, a category introduced last year to cater to African music, Kenyan music was categorized as Genge music. That implies if Mugithi singer Samidoh or Benga singer Prince Indah made a  Gramy submission their music would be considered as Genge by the Academy.

In a bid to increase her chances of being nominated for the 2025 Grammys, singer Ms Kimani has entered two other categories besides the Best African Music Performance category. Victoria has also submitted entries for Best Global Music Album and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.
Rapper Octopizzo has submitted entries in the Best African Music Performance category, as well as in the Best Folk Album and Best Rap Album categories.

Should the two land nominations with the nominees set to be announced early next month, they will enter the final round of voting which determines the winners of each category.
Octoppizzo has been perennial with his submissions since 2018 when he first submitted his tracks. He missed out on nominations for the 60th Grammy but landed an official invitation to grace the awarding ceremony in the US.

tmatiko@ke.nationmedia.com