GRAMMYS ADD THREE NEW CATEGORIES

The Recording Academy has added three new categories to the Grammy Awards: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording. It's also moved a pair of categories into the general field.

"These changes reflect our commitment to actively listen and respond to feedback from our music community, accurately represent a diverse range of relevant musical genres and stay aligned with the ever-evolving musical landscape," said Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. "By introducing these three new categories, we are able to acknowledge and appreciate a broader array of artists—and relocating the Producer of the Year and Songwriter of the Year categories to the general field ensures that all our voters can participate in recognizing excellence in these fields."

Following are the definitions of the new categories, which will be applicable for the first time to the upcoming 66th annual Grammy Awards.

Best African Music Performance: A track and singles category that recognizes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent. Highlighting regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions, the category includes but is not limited to the Afrobeat, Afro-fusion, Afro Pop, Afrobeats, Alte, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Kizomba, Chimurenga, High Life, Fuji, Kwassa, Ndombolo, Mapouka, Ghanaian Drill, Afro-House, South African Hip-Hop and Ethio Jazz genres.

Best Pop Dance Recording: Recognizes tracks and singles that feature up-tempo, danceable music that follows a pop arrangement. Eligible Pop Dance recordings also feature strong rhythmic beats and significant electronic-based instruments with an emphasis on the vocal performance, melody and hooks. Dance remixes are eligible in the Best Remixed Recording category only and may not be entered in Best Pop Dance Recording.

Best Alternative Jazz Album: This category recognizes artistic excellence in Alternative Jazz albums by individuals, duos and groups/ensembles, with or without vocals. Alternative Jazz may be defined as a genre-blending, envelope-pushing hybrid that mixes jazz (improvisation, interaction, harmony, rhythm, arrangements, composition and style) with other genres, including R&B, Hip-Hop, Classical, Contemporary Improvisation, Experimental, Pop, Rap, Electronic/Dance music and/or Spoken Word. It may also include the contemporary production techniques/instrumentation associated with other genres.

Per Mason above, the categories of Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical, will be moved to the general field, allowing all Grammy voters to vote in these non-genre-specific categories.