Two of Nigeria’s biggest music exports made the cut at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards. The category built to recognize the genre they helped define did not.
Burna Boy picked up two nominations for “Dai Dai,” his FIFA World Cup collaboration with Shakira, competing in Best Collaboration and Best Latin. Tems earned one nomination, for “Raindance” featuring British rapper Dave, in the Best R&B category. Both nominations were confirmed in the full nominee list MTV released this week.
What is missing from that list is Best Afrobeats. MTV discontinued the category after three years, and the network has offered no public explanation for the decision. Rema and Selena Gomez won the inaugural award in 2023 for “Calm Down.” Tyla then won it twice in a row, first in 2024 for “Water” and again in 2025 for “Push 2 Start.”
Tyla’s back to back wins had already sparked debate over how African music gets sorted into award categories at global ceremonies. Her removal from the conversation entirely, now that the category no longer exists, adds a new layer to that argument.
I want you to notice what this cut does and does not do. It does not remove African artists from the VMAs. Burna Boy and Tems both made this year’s list, and in broader categories than before. What it removes is a dedicated lane built specifically to recognize Afrobeats as its own competitive class, separate from R&B, pop or Latin music.
That distinction matters for artists who have spent years pushing to be judged as Afrobeats acts on Afrobeats terms, not folded into whichever adjacent genre a ceremony finds convenient. Burna Boy’s nomination in Best Latin, for a song built around a World Cup collaboration with a Colombian star, is a case in point. The song carries Afrobeats elements, but the category it competes in has nothing to do with the genre.
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The 2026 VMAs will air live on CBS and MTV on Sunday, September 27, from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, with streaming on Paramount+. Voting closes on September 25. Neither MTV nor Burna Boy’s or Tems’ teams had commented publicly on the category’s removal at the time of this report.
Whatever the reasoning behind the decision, the artists are still in the room. The category that once had their name on it is not.
