Afrobeats superstar, Femi Kuti has been nominated for a Grammy award four times but he has never won. In a radio chat with Beat FM 99.9 the “Stop The Hate” star explains his music and the importance of Grammy to it, citing what is more important to him than winning awards or the Grammy’s.
“My career was never built on winning awards,” he said. “ It was based on talking about social and political issues. If my career were built on winning the Grammy’s, I would probably not be based in Nigeria. I would set up somewhere in America and be lobbying for it. It’s really political, you must be there, they must see you and you must be fighting for it. I would be working with the best musicians to put a big image of my people out there.”
“If I use big American artistes to distribute my music it is already a Grammy nominated album. The Grammy already knows who I am. Most important for me and my career, is, if I can wake up and have electricity forever, if we have good salaries for everybody, pensions are paid, the roads are good, and Africa is a big party where I can drive my car from Lagos to Nairobi, Johannesburg and the place is booming with love, no award can bring me such satisfaction,” he added. Femi Kuti was nominated in 2003, 2010, 2012 and 2013 in the World Music category of the Grammy’s. [Vanguard]
