The Nigerian Twittersphere has been abuzz since winners of the 2021 Grammy Awards were announced on Sunday night.

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The major bone of contention among Twitter users was if Tiwa Savage, Femi Kuti and Made Kuti also won a Grammy or not.

TheCable Lifestyle had reported how Wizkid and Burna Boy snagged their first-ever Grammys at the award ceremony held in Los Angeles.

Wizkid and Beyonce won the ‘Best Music Video’ category for ‘Brown Skin Girl‘, their 2019 collaboration, while Burna Boy also emerged winner of the ‘Best Global Music Album’ category for ‘Twice As Tall‘, his 2020 album.

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Tiwa Savage

But shortly after the pair were announced winners in their respective categories, the internet was inundated with rumours that Tiwa, Femi and Made Kuti also won at the Grammys for their contributions to ‘Everyday Life’, the eighth studio album by Coldplay, British rock band.

Several Nigerian celebrities including Simi — with over three million followers — pushed the narrative that the ‘Koroba’ singer also won. Simi, however, deleted the tweet later.

Here are other tweets:

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Some users had also alleged media bias, claiming that Tiwa’s “win” was not reported, “because she is a woman.”

“Tiwa savage won a Grammy tonight but only the men are being celebrated. The patriarchy again,” one of the users had written.

Many of those in this school of thought had argued — albeit without proof — that since Wizkid won for his collaboration with Beyonce, Tiwa, Made and Femi also clinched a Grammy for their feature on Coldplay’s 2019 album.

But how true is this? Checks by TheCable Lifestyle showed the claims are not true.

What we found out

‘Everyday Life‘, a 16-track project, had contributions from Tiwa, Femi and Made. The ‘Celia’ crooner had a brief stint as the backing vocal on ‘Eko’, a track off the album, alongside chorus from Chris Martin, Coldplay’s band leader.

Femi and Made, on the other hand, featured on ‘Arabesque’, another track on the album. Alongside vocals from Stromae, a Belgian singer, the pair handled the horn sections as well as the orchestrionics respectively.

Nominations for 2021 Grammys

The album had snagged two nominations for the 2021 Grammy Awards namely the ‘Best Recording Package’ and ‘Album of the Year’ categories.

But according to Grammy’s guideline on the category, “award to artist(s) and to featured artist(s), songwriter(s) of new material, producer(s), recording engineer(s), mixer(s) and mastering engineer(s) credited with at least 33% playing time of the album, if other than artist.”

This implies that while ‘Everyday Life’ was nominated for the Grammys, the three Nigerian singers were not because they had “lesser contributions” to the project.

It should also be noted that the trio were not even listed among those credited for the project and therefore not enlisted for the award in the first place.

Those credited for the project on the Grammy’s website included: “Daniel Green, Bill Rahko & Rik Simpson (producers); Mark “Spike” Stent, (engineer/mixer); Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion & Chris Martin (songwriters) and Emily Lazar (mastering engineer).”

On the other, Grammys explicitly stated that the ‘Best Music Video’ category won by Wizkid is an “award to the artist, video director, and video producer.”

It also clearly listed Wizkid among the winners alongside Beyoncé and Blue Ivy on its website. Others credited for the project include “Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & Jenn Nkiru, (video directors); Astrid Edwards, Aya Kaida, Jean Mougin, Nathan Scherrer & Erinn Williams (video producers).”

In November last year, Made had in an Instagram post clarified his rumoured nomination alongside his father and Tiwa for their contributions to the Coldplay’s album.

“Congratulations @femiakuti @guyberryman @coldplay @billrahko @rikademus @norahshaqur @apollo_jane @officialneka !! Super proud to have played a small part of this. We miss you all! P.S pretty sure I’m not ‘nominated’ for my roles, just happy to have been able to contribute a bit musically! It’s been an adventure!” he had explained.

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Made and Femi Kuti

Further checks showed that while Femi and his son were listed among “personnel” who produced the album, the ‘44-99‘ crooner was not mentioned.

Did ‘Everyday Life’ win at the 2021 Grammys?

While Coldplay’s album was nominated for ‘Album of the Year’ category, it did not win as rumoured in some quarters.

Rather, the category was won by ‘Folklore‘, a 2020 album by Taylor Swift, US singer and songwriter.

The project also lost out the ‘Best Recording Package’ category to ‘Vols. 11 & 12′, the sixth album by Doug Cunningham & Jason Noto better known as Desert Sessions.

From the foregoing, claims that Tiwa, Femi and Made won at the 2021 Grammys are FALSE.



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