Grammys rename World Music Album category to move away from "connotations of colonialism"

The World Music Album Grammy Award, won this year by Angelique Kidjo for her Celia album, will be presented with a different award name next year.

According to Billboard, the Best World Music Album award will now be named the Best Global Music Album in a bid to show more cultural sensitivity.

The Recording Academy said in a statement, "As we continue to embrace a truly global mindset, we update our language to reflect a more appropriate categorisation that seeks to engage and celebrate the current scope of music from around the world."

The statement added, "Over the summer we held discussions with artists, ethnomusicologists, and linguists from around the world who determined that there was an opportunity to update the best world music album category toward a more relevant, modern, and inclusive term...The change symbolises a departure from the connotations of colonialism, folk, and ‘non-American’ that the former term embodied while adapting to current listening trends and cultural evolution among the diverse communities it may represent."

The name change comes nearly five months after the Grammys updated its guidelines and category names.

The Grammys presented its first Best World Music Album award in 1992 to Mickey Hart for his Planet Drum album. Angelique Kidjo is the only artist to winn the award three times.