Shungudzo received a Grammy Award for her work on the Mother Nature album by Angelique Kidjo
Alexandra Shungudzo Govere, a Zimbabwean artist popularly known as Shungudzo Kuyimba was celebrated and acknowledged at The 64th GRAMMY Awards for her work behind the scenes as a writer, producer, and engineer on this year's Grammy Awards Best Global Music Album winner titled Mother Nature by Angelique Kidjo a Beninese singer-songwriter, actress, and activist who is noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos.
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| Shungudzo photo credit Instagram |
In her speech, Kidjo first highlighted the young African musicians who collaborated with her on Mother Nature — including Yemi Alade, Burna Boy, Mr. Eazi, and Shungudzo — saying, "are going to take the world by storm." After thanking the fans who listened "when we needed you," she closed with a powerful statement: "We are all Africans."
"Today, ya girl is a writer, producer, engineer, and featured artist on Angelique Kidjo’s Grammy Award-winning album, “Mother Nature”! Awards are not the determiner of what is truly good — that’s a feeling we nourish inside regardless of what other people think — but damn does it feel nice to be recognized for speaking up, together, in a society that would prefer if we stay silent, alone." Said Shungudzo in a statement posted on her Instagram
I’m proud to have worked on four songs on this beautiful Angelique Kidjo album. I’m proud to be a musician who makes music because I believe that art can, will and must make the world a better place. I’m proud to be Zimbabwean. I’m proud to work with kind people around the world who view art as culture and medicine before commerce. I’m proud of my own bravery in deciding to become a musician, and more recently in deciding to shift the course of my career away from making the rich richer even if it meant not knowing where my next paycheck would come from. I’m now proud of every song I get to be a part of. I’m proud to have survived some really tough shit with an optimistic heart and my ancestors by my side. I’m immensely proud of my ancestors. And, most importantly, I’m proud of my mum. If you could see her growing up and raising me, it would all make sense.- Shungudzo
Alexandra Shungudzo Govere, better known as Shungudzo, is a Zimbabwean US-based singer, songwriter, former gymnast, and reality television personality. She first attracted media attention by being the first black female gymnast to represent Zimbabwe in artistic gymnastics at the 1999 All-Africa Games, and later by co-founding the Kijana Project, which provides relief for AIDS orphans. She later gained wide media attention as a cast member on the 2011 season of The Real World: San Diego.
The Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album is an honor presented to recording artists for influential music from around the globe at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position"
Other 2022 GRAMMY Awards nominees for Best Global Music Album were as follows
- Rocky Dawuni – Voice of Bunbon (Vol. 1)
- Daniel Ho & Friends – East West Players Presents: Daniel Ho & Friends Live in Concert
- Femi Kuti & Made Kuti – Legacy+
- Wizkid – Made in Lagos: Deluxe Edition
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