Three years after hitting global fame with her vocals on ‘Jerusalema’, South African singer, Nomcebo Zikode, won her first Grammy award on Sunday, February 5, 2023.
Zikode bagged her first Grammy in the Best Global Music Performance category with the song Bayethe a collaboration with Zakes Bantwini and Grammy winning flutist winner, Wouter Kellerman.
“I once gave the world a song that took the world by storm and put us together, but I didn’t get this award nor nomination, but God told me I’ll give you Bayethe,” an excited Zikode said as she received the award at the 65th Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, the United States on Sunday night.
It was also her first nomination.
Also nominated in the category were Burna Boy, Uganda’s Eddy Kenzo and Ghana’s Rocky Dawuni, Arooj Aftab and Anoushka Shankar.
Bayethe was a subject of litigation in South Africa in December 2022 following a letter reportedly written by Zikode’s former record label Open Mic Productions to Spotify asking the streaming platform to pull down the song, citing intellectual property infringements.
Despite the controversy, 38-year-old Zikode won her first Grammy with the song on Sunday night. This is coming three years after she broke streaming records with Jerusalema produced by Master KG and released in late 2019. A remix of the song featuring Burna Boy was released in 2020.
Jerusalema became a global hit during the 2020 pandemic and went on to become the most Shazammed song in history.
In 2020, Zikode told Guardian UK that she recorded the song when she was ‘about to lose hope’.
“All of this happened when I was about to lose hope,” says Zikode.
Zikode who had been a backing vocalist for many years was struggling to launch her career as a solo artist and she said the lyrics of the song are a plea for God to answer this prayer.
The lyrics in her native IsiZulu when translated mean “Jerusalem is my home/ Guide me / Take me with You / Do not leave me here.”
