Joeboy is the latest Afrobeats star to drum support for African award shows.

With the continuous global exportation of Afrobeats, there’s more focus on international award shows by Nigerian artists and fans.

Nigerian hitmaker Joeboy while appearing on The Big Convo podcast in Ghana called on African superstars to support award shows in the continent instead of being fixated on the Grammys.

Joeboy pointed out that the Grammys is an American award show despite its global positioning.

“I think we should unapologetically be ourselves and also empower our institutions here in Africa…Grammys is a great award but it’s still an American award. It’s just seen as a global award because of its positioning but we make it look like that it’s the biggest award an African artist can ever get.”

Joeboy called on Afrobeats stars to show African award shows the same level of interest they show the Grammys.

“Why don’t we show up for our awards and plan it properly if they didn’t show up for their awards, it won’t be as great as it’s now”.

Joeboy echoed the sentiment of those calling for investment in the local Afrobeats system instead of the current focus of just making money internationally without building locally.

“I know there’s money to be made there but we need to return home and invest because at the end of the day, we will all have to come back. So it’s all about making sure our infrastructure and institutions are growing.”

Joeboy’s opinions on the need to support local institutions have been recently shared by Nigerian music star Bella Shmurda who stated that Afrobeats should not be denigrated by stars who feel the need to not identify with the genre.

During his acceptance speech at the 2023 Headies Awards, Rema gave a rousing speech where he called on the superstars to support local institutions.