Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album

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.^[1] 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".^[2]

Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album
Awarded for	Influential music from around the globe
Country	United States
Presented by	National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
First award	1992
Currently held by	Matt B featuring Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Alkebulan II (2025)
Website	grammy.com

History

The award for Best Global Music Album, reserved for international performers exhibiting "non-European, indigenous traditions", was first presented to Mickey Hart in 1992 for the album Planet Drum.^[3][4] In 1996, Academy trustees attempted to solve the problem of "compressing 75% or more of the world's music into a single award category" by broadening the definition of "world music" to include non-Western classical music.^[5] Beginning in 2001, award recipients included the producers, engineers, and/or mixers associated with the nominated work in addition to the recording artists. Following the 45th Grammy Awards (2003), the award was split into two separate categories for Best Traditional World Music Album and Best Contemporary World Music Album. In 2012, the two categories were merged back to Best World Music Album.^[6] In 2020, The Recording Academy announced it would be changing the name of the category to Best Global Music Album.^[7]

Angelique Kidjo^[8] has won the category the most, with five wins (four of which have been since 2016). The second group to win most often is Ladysmith Black Mambazo,^[9] who have won four times during the combined history of Global/World categories. Soweto Gospel Choir have three wins in the Global/World categories.^[10] In the single merged category, Ravi Shankar and Ry Cooder have both won twice. Angelique Kidjo also has the most nominations in the combined Global/World history with twelve additional nominations. Anoushka Shankar has the second most nominations in the combined categories with nine nominations.^[11]

In the single, merged Global category, artists from Brazil have won the most times with five wins, the USA have won four times, Benin has also won on four occasions, India and South Africa each have three wins, Mali and France have both had artists win twice.

Recipients

Mickey Hart, the first award recipient (1992), at the Web 2.0 Conference in 2005

Two-time award recipient Ry Cooder performing in 2009

1998 award winner Milton Nascimento in 2008

1999 award winner Gilberto Gil.

2000 award winner Caetano Veloso performing in 2006

Four-time recipient Angélique Kidjo.

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Nationality	Work	Nominees	Ref.
1992	Mickey Hart	United States	Planet Drum	Dori Caymmi – Brazilian Serenata Gipsy Kings – Este Mundo Salif Keita – Amen Milton Nascimento – Txai	[12]
1993	Sérgio Mendes	Brazil	Brasileiro	Gipsy Kings – Gipsy Kings Live Ofra Haza – Kirya Youssou N'Dour – Eyes Open Strunz & Farah – Américas	[13]
1994	Ry Cooder and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt	United States India	A Meeting by the River	Johnny Clegg and Savuka – Heat, Dust and Dreams Deep Forest – Deep Forest Henry Kaiser and David Lindley – A World Out of Time, Vol. 2 Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares – From Bulgaria with Love	[14]
1995	Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Touré	United States Mali	Talking Timbuktu	Gipsy Kings – Love and Liberté Milton Nascimento – Angelus Youssou N'Dour – The Guide (Wommat) Zap Mama – Sabsylma	[15]
1996	Deep Forest	France	Boheme	Cesária Évora – Cesária Baaba Maal – Firin' in Fouta Shankar with Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram – Raga Aberi The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco featuring Randy Weston – The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco	[16]
1997	The Chieftains	Ireland	Santiago	Béla Fleck, V.M. Bhatt and Jiebing Chen – Tabula Rasā Gipsy Kings – Tierra Gitana Ali Akbar Khan – Legacy Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook – Night Song Joe Zawinul – My People	[17]
1998	Milton Nascimento	Brazil	Nascimento	Cesária Évora – Cabo Verde Gipsy Kings – Compas Ali Akbar Khan – Passing on the Tradition Babatunde Olatunji – Love Drum Talk	[18]
1999	Gilberto Gil	Brazil	Quanta Live	King Sunny Adé – Odu Cesária Évora – Miss Perfumado Angélique Kidjo – Oremi Robbie Robertson – Contact from the Underworld of Redboy	[19]
2000	Caetano Veloso	Brazil	Livro	Afro Celt Sound System – Volume 2: Release Cesária Évora – Café Atlantico Salif Keita – Papa Ali Farka Touré – Niafunke	[20]
2001	João Gilberto	Brazil	João Voz e Violão	Miriam Makeba – Homeland Youssou N'Dour – Joko (The Link) The Chieftains – Water from the Well Paul Winter and the Earth Band – Journey with the Sun	[21]
2002	Ravi Shankar	India	Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000	Afro Celt Sound System – Volume 3: Further in Time Cesária Évora – São Vicente di Longe Gilberto Gil and Milton Nascimento – Gil and Milton John McLaughlin and various artists – Saturday Night in Bombay: Remember Shakti	[22]
2003	Rubén Blades	Panama	Mundo[23]	Salif Keita – Moffou Angélique Kidjo – Black Ivory Soul Femi Kuti – Fight to Win Anoushka Shankar – Live at Carnegie Hall
2012	Tinariwen	Mali	Tassili	AfroCubism – AfroCubism Femi Kuti – Africa for Africa Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Songs from a Zulu Farm	[24]
2013	Ravi Shankar	India	The Living Room Sessions Part 1	Amadou & Mariam – Folila Daniel Ho – On a Gentle Island Breeze Hugh Masekela – Jabulani Anoushka Shankar – Traveller	[25]
2014	Gipsy Kings	France	Savor Flamenco[26]	Femi Kuti – No Place for My Dream Ravi Shankar – The Living Room Sessions Part 2
	Ladysmith Black Mambazo	South Africa	Live: Singing for Peace Around the World[27]
2015	Angelique Kidjo	Benin	Eve	Toumani Diabaté and Sidiki Diabaté – Toumani & Sidiki Sérgio Mendes – Magic Anoushka Shankar – Traces of You Wu Man, Luis Conte & Daniel Ho – Our World in Song	[28]
2016	Angelique Kidjo	Benin	Sings	Gilberto Gil – Gilbertos Samba Ao Vivo Ladysmith Black Mambazo with Ella Spira and the Inala Ensemble – Music from Inala Anoushka Shankar – Home Zomba Prison Project – I Have No Everything Here	[28]
2017	Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble	United States	Sing Me Home	Celtic Woman – Destiny Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Walking in the Footsteps of Our Fathers Anoushka Shankar – Land of Gold Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil – Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música: Multishow Live	[29]
2018	Ladysmith Black Mambazo	South Africa	Shaka Zulu Revisited: 30th Anniversary Celebration	Vicente Amigo – Memoria de los Sentidos Buika – Para Mi Anat Cohen & Trio Brasileiro – Rosa Dos Ventos Tinariwen – Elwan	[30]
2019	Soweto Gospel Choir	South Africa	Freedom	Bombino – Deran Fatoumata Diawara – Fenfo Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 – Black Times Yiddish Glory – The Lost Songs of World War II, various artists	[31]
2020	Angelique Kidjo	Benin	Celia	Altin Gün – Gece Bokanté & Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley – What Heat Burna Boy – African Giant Nathalie Joachim & the Spektral Quartet – Fanm d'Ayiti	[32]
2021	Burna Boy	Nigeria	Twice as Tall	Antibalas - Fu Chronicles Bebel Gilberto - Agora Anoushka Shankar - Love Letters Tinariwen - Amadjar	[33]
2022	Angélique Kidjo	Benin	Mother Nature	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	[34]
2023	Masa Takumi	Japan	Sakura	Berklee Indian Ensemble – Shuruaat Burna Boy – Love, Damini Angélique Kidjo & Ibrahim Maalouf – Queen of Sheba Anoushka Shankar, Metropole Orkest & Jules Buckley featuring Manu Delago – Between Us... (Live)	[35]
2024	Shakti	India United Kingdom	This Moment	Susana Baca – Epifanías Bokanté – History Burna Boy – I Told Them... Davido – Timeless	[36]
2025	Matt B featuring Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	United States United Kingdom	Alkebulan II	Ciro Hurtado – Paisajes Rema – Heis Antonio Rey – Historias de un Flamenco Tems – Born in the Wild	[37]

^{^[I]} Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

See also

• Music portal

• Awards for world music
• List of cultural and regional genres of music
• List of Grammy Award categories