Musa Keys, Boity Thulo, Tholsi Pillay, Anele Mdoda at Grammy African nominee brunch

Mzansi was in full force at Saturday’s star-studded Grammy weekend second annual African nominee brunch at Spring Place, in Beverly Hills, California, in the US.

Hosted by GUBA Enterprises and Rolling Stone Magazine with DJ Fredy Muks, the star-studded event honoured the African Grammy nominees for the 66th Grammy Awards, being held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

South African Grammy nominee Musa Keys arrived wearing a black leather ensemble with red trousers and oversized sunglasses, while Anele Mdoda wore a flowing green dress and will be accompanying bestie Trevor Noah during the Grammys.

TV personality Boity Thulo wore a floor-length African print dress by celebrity designer Thebe Magugu. “I’m here shooting some content for a project that I need to keep confidential,” she told TimesLIVE.

“But I’m mainly here again this year to support our South African nominees at the Grammys. We had Zakes (Bantwini) and Nomcebo (Zikode) and Wouter (Kellerman) win last year which was fantastic, and this year African music is on a much bigger platform which is really amazing.”

Tholsi Pillay, business partner and manager of Grammy-award-winning flautist and producer Wouter Kellerman, has attended the Grammys 15 times and seen first-hand the meteoric rise in popularity and demand for African music over the years.

“We’re so proud of our South African nominees and all around the African continent. Wouter, Zakes and Nomcebo won the Grammy last year for Bayethe and they are excited for a possible South African victory again. Today I’ve seen so many artists and South Africans who I wouldn’t have normally run into at home, so Grammys weekend is a highlight on my calendar and worth flying in for.”

Arena Holdings’ Takunda Jinda, Zakes Bantwini’s business partner Sibo Mhlungu and Centurion-born singer-songwriter Stefan Benz were also in attendance.

“I taught Katy Perry to say a line of Afrikaans on this last season of American Idol during my first audition,” said Benz. “I was super nervous, I walked up and when they said, ‘You’re going to Hollywood’, she asked me, ‘How do you say you’re going to Hollywood in Afrikaans' so I taught her what to say and that kind of went viral. I’m back in the studio and I’m cheering on our South African and African nominees.”

Grammy nominees for this year’s brand-new category of Best African Music Performance are Tyla and Water; Davido’s Unavailable featuring Musa Keys; Asake and Olamide’s Amapiano; Burna Boy and City Boys, and Ayra Starr’s Rush.

South African nominees Tyla and Musa Keys will be attending the Grammy red carpet event and ceremony on Sunday.

Trevor Noah, hosting the Grammys for the fourth time in a row, is also nominated for Best Comedy Album for I Wish You Would, his second Grammy nomination. He is only the fifth Grammy host who has been nominated in the same year.

At the celebration, Harvey Mason Jr, CEO of the Recording Academy, said: “Times are different, everything’s changed, and the [Recording] Academy is a different academy. A big part of that is the music that we’re celebrating and a big part of the music that we’re celebrating right now is music from the continent of Africa.”

He continued, “I love Afrobeats, amapiano, but we don’t know everything about all the music and all the talent that is happening everywhere in the world. So I’m counting on you, all of you, to help inform us, to educate us so that we can understand how to serve.”

The 66th Grammy Awards take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, and will be broadcast at 3am and 10pm on 1 Magic (DStv Channel 103).

TimesLIVE