Having officially burst onto the scene with the chart-topping breakthrough hit ‘Stamina,’ in 20019, singer-songwriter Eddy Kenzo has since colored his name in the history books of a number of award shows; having kicked off with a BET Win in 2014, then AFRIMMAs, Nickelodeon Choice Awards, and most recently the Pulse Influencer Awards, among others.
As if filling up & selling out venues like the Kololo Independence Grounds over the weekend at his largely anticipated ‘Eddy Kenzo Festival’ wasn’t enough, he has now penciled his name in record books for being the first-ever Ugandan act to clinch a GRAMMY nomination.
He becomes only the first Ugandan; as the past two acts to be nominated were associated to Uganda but not currently based in the region, and these were Michael Samuel Kiwanuka who identifies as a British singer-songwriter and record producer signed under Polydor Records and The Ganda Boys (formerly known as Da Twinz and now operating as a band with their new recruit Craig Pruess) who are United Kingdom based and only made it to the consideration list for the category of “Music To Create Social Change”.
Michael was up for ‘Best Rock Album’ at the 2021 Grammys for his genre-busting 1970s-R&B-meets-folk-meets-funk self-titled LP, Kiwanuka.
So, don’t slam anyone saying Eddy Kenzo is the first to do it, because they’ll be right. 😁
The astounding news was announced yesterday as Music’s biggest night; the GRAMMYs revealed the nominees for the 65th run of the annual show.
Kenzo upon receiving the news was super elated and expressed his gratitude saying:
Thanks to his team-up with American R&B and Hip Hop, singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer Matthew David Benson (alias Matt B) “Gimme Love”, Eddy Kenzo is up for ‘Best Global Music Performance’; a category; one he is joined in by Arooj Aftab & Anoushka Shankar, Burna Boy, Rocky Dawuni & Blvk H3ro, and Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini & Nomcebo Zikode.
Other notable Grammy contenders are Beyonce who leads with 9 nods, then Kendrick Lamar with 8 plus Harry Styles, Adele, and Brandi Carlile (each with 7). Future, DJ Khaled and the producer and songwriter The-Dream, Mary J. Blige follow with each having six Grammy nominations.
The 2023 Grammys will feature several new awards categories, including Best Spoken Word Poetry Album and Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games.
Tune into the GRAMMYs when they air live on CBS on February 5, 2023 to find out how Eddy Kenzo and the rest of the nominees fair out by the end of the night. For the full list of nominees, tap here.
