For three years, the MTV Video Music Awards had a convenient way of acknowledging Afrobeats. Since 2023, some of the biggest names in African music have had a dedicated place on one of America’s most recognisable award stages, beginning with Rema and Selena Gomez winning the inaugural Best Afrobeats award for “Calm Down.” This win captured what made the moment significant: an African genre that had spent years moving into the global mainstream was now being formally recognised by one of pop culture’s biggest institutions. Then, in the 2026 VMA nominations, the category disappeared.
That does not necessarily mean MTV has decided that Afrobeats no longer deserves its own category. The 2026 nominations also leave out several categories that appeared in previous years, while MTV has brought back Best Dance after a seven-year absence. For now, there is no public explanation saying that Best Afrobeats has been permanently retired. Still, its absence after only three editions is difficult to ignore, particularly because the category arrived at a moment when Afrobeats was becoming increasingly difficult for global institutions to overlook.
The timing makes the decision even more interesting because the category had already begun to develop a story of its own. Rema won in 2023 with “Calm Down”, Tyla took the award for “Water” in 2024, and then won again in 2025 for “Push 2 Start.” The category’s nominees included Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid, Tems, Asake and Ayra Starr, alongside artists from outside Nigeria.
Tyla’s two consecutive wins also made the category increasingly complicated. The South African singer has repeatedly identified her sound with amapiano rather than Afrobeats, yet MTV placed both “Water” and “Push 2 Start” inside its Best Afrobeats category. Her 2025 win again put her ahead of a field dominated by Nigerian artists, including Burna Boy, Rema, Tems, Wizkid and Asake. Tyla’s second win reflected the debate that followed: if African music is becoming more visible globally, why does an award created to celebrate Afrobeats keep producing arguments about what actually qualifies as Afrobeats? That question may be more important than the disappearance of the category itself.
For years, international award shows have had to figure out how to package African music for audiences who may not understand the differences between genres developing across the continent. Afrobeats became the easiest global label because it was already commercially powerful. But that convenience has its limits. Nigerian Afrobeats, South African amapiano, Ghanaian hiplife and other African sounds do not suddenly become the same thing because a Western institution needs one category to put them in.
The absence of Best Afrobeats could therefore mean several things. It could simply be part of MTV changing its categories for 2026. It could suggest that the VMAs are reconsidering how they classify African music. Or it could mean that MTV sees African music as increasingly capable of competing across its general categories rather than requiring a separate space.
There is a case for the last interpretation. Afrobeats is no longer waiting for an American award show to tell the world that it matters. Burna Boy, Tems, Wizkid, Davido, Rema and Ayra Starr have built audiences that stretch far beyond Nigeria, while Rema’s “Calm Down” became one of the biggest African-led global hits of recent years. The genre has already crossed the boundary that dedicated categories are supposed to acknowledge.
But there is also a risk in celebrating that too quickly. Removing a category can make a genre feel more integrated, but it can also make African artists less visible if they are not consistently nominated elsewhere. A dedicated category guaranteed that every year, the VMAs had to have a conversation about African music. Without it, that conversation depends on whether African artists are considered competitive enough for the broader categories.
That may ultimately be what MTV’s decision means for Afrobeats: not that the genre has become irrelevant, but that its relationship with global institutions may be changing.
For three years, MTV created a space and invited Afrobeats into it. Now that space is gone, at least for 2026. Whether that is a sign that Afrobeats has outgrown the category or that the industry is still figuring out how to understand African music is something the next few years will reveal.
For now, the more interesting question is not whether Afrobeats needs Best Afrobeats but whether global award shows have finally learned how to recognise African music without needing to put it in a box first.
