Grammys Add Three New Categories, Including Best African Performance and Pop Dance Recording

Three new Grammys will be handed out at next year’s awards show. On Tuesday, the Recording Academy announced the additional categories of Best African Performance, Best Pop Dance Recording, and Best Alternative Jazz Album.

“The Recording Academy is proud to announce these latest category changes to our awards process. These changes reflect our commitment to actively listen and respond to the feedback from our music community, accurately represent a diverse range of relevant musical genres, and stay aligned with the ever-evolving musical landscape,” said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, in a press release. “By introducing these three new categories, we are able to acknowledge and appreciate a broader array of artists.”

In addition to the category additions, both the Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical will move to the general field to allow all Grammy voters to cast votes in those respective categories. (The Songwriter category was added last year.)

“We are excited to honor and celebrate the creators and recordings in these categories, while also exposing a wider range of music to fans worldwide,” Mason Jr. added. The changes were voted on and passed during a Recording Academy Board of Trustees meeting last month.

The African Music Performance category will highlight the “regional melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic traditions” of Africa, including the likes of Afrobeats, Afro Pop, Ghanian Drill, and Ehtio Jazz, among other genres stemming from the content.

The Pop Dance Recording category focuses on “up-tempo, danceable music that follows a pop arrangement” and will emphasize vocal performance, melody, and hooks. The category will not include dance remixes of previously released music. The Best Alternative Jazz Album category, for its part, will recognize projects that are “genre-bending, envelope-pushing hybrid that mix jazz… with other genres.”