‘Festival Song’ Album Joins Over 120 Albums From Alkaline, Spice, Sean Paul & More In Reggae GRAMMY Quest
Jamaica’s 2021 National Festival Song album joins Alkaline’s Top Prize, Spice’s 10, Sean Paul’s Live N’ Livin, Etana’s Pamoja, and over 120 other albums which have been submitted to the Recording Academy for consideration for nomination, in the Best Reggae Album category at the upcoming 64th GRAMMY Awards.
Entertainment Minister Olivia Grange, who is a former manager for Shabba Ranks, Patra, and Bounty Killer, officially made the announcement about the Festival Song album, on her Instagram page on Wednesday. She followed up a day later, with a press release where she elaborated on the entry.
“The long list of entries is now being reviewed by eligible voting members of the Recording Academy whose votes will determine the final five nominees in the Reggae category,” Grange noted.
“It is a great album with great Jamaican music… and the fact that it is being considered for a GRAMMY Award (nomination), is very encouraging. It’s very good for the country, and especially for the young, upcoming artistes and those established artistes who are on the album. It’s great for the Festival movement,” she said of the 12-track album which features songs from winner reggae songstress Stacious, IOctane, DB, Tamo J, Kimiela ‘Candy’ Isaacs, Peso, Althea Hewitt, Father Reece, Lutan Fyah, Dez-I Boyd, Reggae Maxx and Fab 5.
For this round of GRAMMY nominations, the Product Eligibility Period is for bodies of work spanning September 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021.
The first round of voting began on October 22 and is set to close on November 5.
Nominations for the 2022 GRAMMY Awards show, will be announced on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, while final round voting will take place between December 6, 2021 and January 5, 2022. The awards ceremony will return to the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Monday, January 31, 2022.
On April 30 this year, The Recording Academy announced that it had made significant changes to its awards process “to ensure that the GRAMMY Awards rules and guidelines are transparent and equitable”, this after the integrity of the nomination and voting process was questioned by several American stars and even Popcaan, in the aftermath of the 2021 Awards.
Among the changes made by The Academy, were the elimination of Nominations Review Committees and a reduction in the number of categories in which voters may vote.
According to the Recording Academy, to be eligible for a GRAMMY, all recordings must have been up for sale commercially via general distribution or made available as a digital recording, either for sale or via a recognized streaming service. In addition, for a body of work to be considered an album, it must contain at least five different tracks with a total playing time of 15 minutes or, a total playing time of at least 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement.
The GRAMMY Award is voted on by the Recording Academy’s voting membership, which is comprised of music creators, including artists, producers, songwriters, and engineers.
Following the announcement of the nominees of the 2021 Grammy awards, Dancehall artist Popcaan had lashed out at the Recording Academy for not considering his Fixtape album for nomination in the list of albums, and pointed out that there was a continued snubbing of the genre by The Academy.
Got To Be Tough by Toots & The Maytals had copped the 2021 Best Reggae Album award ahead of Buju Banton’s Upside Down 2020, Skip Marley’s Higher Place, Maxi Priest’s It All Comes Back To Love and The Wailers’ One World.
In a post bearing curse words which he later deleted, Popcaan had not only upbraided The Academy for snubbing Dancehall, but had accused the organization of being corrupt.
However, following Popcaan’s outburst, Dancehall megastar Shaggy, had reiterated his call for qualified entertainers to become members of the Recording Academy maintaining that the organization was not to be blamed and that artistes themselves ought to play their role by registering with the organization so that they can cast votes to get the outcome they desire.
Over the years, many Jamaican musicians have contended that the issue with the Grammys lies not necessarily with voting, but argued that the problem was rooted in the selection process for the albums. There had also been overwhelming criticisms that members of the Marley clan were unfairly favored over other artists who had better albums.
Things came to a head in 2016 after news surfaced that Ziggy Marley’s Israeli-born wife Orly, was a governor of the Los Angeles chapter of the Grammy’s executive, the largest in the United States, which made decisions on eligibility for nomination and consideration.
The Gleaner in an article back then had reported “insider sources” as saying that Orly, was also the current chairman of the Reggae Grammy Committee at the time.
Veteran Reggae singer Freddie McGregor had also condemned The Academy for their annual choices for the Best Reggae Album, in another article published in The Gleaner in December that year, describing the Reggae arm of the organization “an embarrassment of indescribable magnitude to Reggae music”.
“When we allow non-Jamaicans to be the judge of our own Jamaican music, we have certainly lost it, and the reggae Grammy is officially a toy and a plaything for the West Coast of the United States,” McGregor had said.
“I think what is happening is a slow deliberate deletion of our music form, and if we don’t have Jamaicans on a panel to determine the best Reggae album, how can white people decide that for us? It is a disgrace that the country that has created such a powerful music is now relying upon foreigners to tell us what is good Reggae music,” McGregor added.