Musician Victoria Kimani during the Kenya International 7-Goal tournament event at Nairobi Polo Club in Nairobi on September 15, 2024.
As you go about your day on social media, you may have encountered several Kenyan artists, such as Victoria Kimani and Octopizzo, posting about their music receiving consideration for the Grammy Awards.
The Grammy's are considered the highest honour in music because they are the only peer-voted awards in the industry.
Receiving Grammy consideration is always the first step towards competing for this prestigious music award, presented by the Recording Academy.
Nomination means that an artist has submitted an entry, paid the required entry fee, and met all the necessary submission criteria, including the originality of their music, and is now eligible for the first round of voting by Recording Academy members to determine the nominees.
In 2022, the Academy announced an introduction of a multi-tiered pricing strategy, to encourage members to submit their entries early enough to avoid the last-minute rush witnessed in the previous years.
The new fee structure introduced was: 'Early Bird' fee of $40 (Sh5,000) for those who submitted their entries between (18 July - 31 July) when the submission window opened. The 'Standard Fee' pricing of $75 (Sh10,000) for those who submitted their entries between 1 August and 21 August and a 'Final Deadline Fee' pricing of $125 (Sh16,000) for last-minute rush submitters. The fee is non-refundable, even if an entry is not shortlisted.
Now that the submission window for the 2025 Grammy Awards has closed, over the next two weeks those artists who have been considered, including Octoppizo and Ms Kimani, will go through the first round of voting by Academy members and hope to be nominated.
The official nominees following the first round of voting are expected to be announced early next month, with around five entries shortlisted in each category.
