African winners at the Grammys, Oscars, Cannes and Emmys: a timeline
A verified timeline of African artists and films that have won at the Grammys, the Oscars, the Cannes Film Festival and the International Emmys, checked against each organisation's own winners records. Updated after every ceremony.
Last updated: 4 October 2026. Covers ceremonies up to the 68th Grammy Awards (2026), the 98th Oscars (2026), the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and the 2025 International Emmy Awards.
This timeline lists African artists, filmmakers and productions that have won at four of the world’s best-known entertainment awards: the Grammys, the Academy Awards (Oscars), the Cannes Film Festival and the International Emmy Awards. Every entry has been checked against the organisation’s own winners records, linked in Sources below.
What we know
- FACT: The first African winner in this timeline is Miriam Makeba, who shared Best Folk Recording at the 8th Grammy Awards in 1966 with Harry Belafonte.
- FACT: Angélique Kidjo and Ladysmith Black Mambazo have each won at least five Grammys in this list; Kidjo’s wins span 2008 to 2022.
- FACT: The Recording Academy introduced Best African Music Performance at the 66th Grammys in 2024. Tyla won it twice (“Water” in 2024, “PUSH 2 START” in 2026) and Tems won it in 2025.
- FACT: Algeria’s “Chronicle of the Years of Fire” (Chronique des années de braise) won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1975, the only Palme d’Or for an African film in this list.
- FACT: South Africa’s “Tsotsi” won the Oscar for Foreign Language Film in 2006 and “My Octopus Teacher” won Documentary Feature in 2021.
Who is included
- Artists who are citizens of, or come from, an African country, and films or programmes produced in or credited to an African country.
- Co-productions are included when the official record lists an African country as a production country, and we name all listed countries.
- We do not include artists of African heritage born and raised elsewhere (for example British or American artists), unless the official record lists them under an African country. This is a scope choice to keep the list checkable, not a judgement on identity.
- Only wins are listed, not nominations. Honorary awards are not included.
Grammy Awards
The year shown is the year of the ceremony.
| Year (edition) | Category | Winner | Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 (8th) | Best Folk Recording | Miriam Makeba (South Africa), with Harry Belafonte | “An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba” |
| 1988 (30th) | Best Traditional Folk Recording | Ladysmith Black Mambazo (South Africa) | “Shaka Zulu” |
| 1995 (37th) | Best World Music Album | Ali Farka Touré (Mali), with Ry Cooder | “Talking Timbuktu” |
| 1995 (37th) | Best Instrumental Arrangement with Accompanying Vocal(s) | Lebo M (Lebohang Morake, South Africa), with Hans Zimmer | “Circle of Life” |
| 2005 (47th) | Best Traditional World Music Album | Ladysmith Black Mambazo | “Raise Your Spirit Higher” |
| 2005 (47th) | Best Contemporary World Music Album | Youssou N’Dour (Senegal) | “Egypt” |
| 2006 (48th) | Best Traditional World Music Album | Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté (Mali) | “In the Heart of the Moon” |
| 2007 (49th) | Best Traditional World Music Album | Soweto Gospel Choir (South Africa) | “Blessed” |
| 2008 (50th) | Best Traditional World Music Album | Soweto Gospel Choir | “African Spirit” |
| 2008 (50th) | Best Contemporary World Music Album | Angélique Kidjo (Benin) | “Djin Djin” |
| 2009 (51st) | Best Traditional World Music Album | Ladysmith Black Mambazo | “Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu” |
| 2010 (52nd) | Best Traditional World Music Album | Mamadou Diabaté (Mali) | “Douga Mansa” |
| 2011 (53rd) | Best Traditional World Music Album | Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté | “Ali and Toumani” |
| 2012 (54th) | Best World Music Album | Tinariwen (Mali) | “Tassili” |
| 2014 (56th) | Best World Music Album (tie) | Ladysmith Black Mambazo | “Live: Singing for Peace Around the World” |
| 2015 (57th) | Best World Music Album | Angélique Kidjo | “Eve” |
| 2015 (57th) | Best New Age Album | Wouter Kellerman (South Africa), with Ricky Kej | “Winds of Samsara” |
| 2016 (58th) | Best World Music Album | Angélique Kidjo | “Sings” |
| 2018 (60th) | Best World Music Album | Ladysmith Black Mambazo | “Shaka Zulu Revisited” |
| 2019 (61st) | Best World Music Album | Soweto Gospel Choir | “Freedom” |
| 2020 (62nd) | Best World Music Album | Angélique Kidjo | “Celia” |
| 2021 (63rd) | Best Global Music Album | Burna Boy (Nigeria) | “Twice As Tall” |
| 2021 (63rd) | Best Music Video | Wizkid (Nigeria), with Beyoncé and Blue Ivy Carter | “Brown Skin Girl” |
| 2022 (64th) | Best Global Music Album | Angélique Kidjo | “Mother Nature” |
| 2022 (64th) | Best Dance/Electronic Music Album | Black Coffee (South Africa) | “Subconsciously” |
| 2023 (65th) | Best Global Music Performance | Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode (South Africa) | “Bayethe” |
| 2023 (65th) | Best Melodic Rap Performance | Tems (Nigeria), with Future and Drake | “Wait for U” |
| 2024 (66th) | Best African Music Performance (first year of the category) | Tyla (South Africa) | “Water” |
| 2025 (67th) | Best African Music Performance | Tems | “Love Me JeJe” |
| 2025 (67th) | Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album | Wouter Kellerman, with Eru Matsumoto and Chandrika Tandon | “Triveni” |
| 2026 (68th) | Best African Music Performance | Tyla | “PUSH 2 START” |
Academy Awards (Oscars)
| Year (ceremony) | Category | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 (42nd) | Foreign Language Film | Algeria | “Z” |
| 1977 (49th) | Foreign Language Film | Ivory Coast | “Black and White in Color” |
| 2004 (76th) | Actress in a Leading Role | Charlize Theron (born in South Africa) | “Monster” |
| 2006 (78th) | Foreign Language Film | South Africa | “Tsotsi” |
| 2014 (86th) | Actress in a Supporting Role | Lupita Nyong’o (Kenya) | “12 Years a Slave” |
| 2021 (93rd) | Documentary (Feature) | Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster (South Africa) | “My Octopus Teacher” |
For context on Nollywood’s own Oscar journey, read our history of Nigeria’s Oscar entries.
Cannes Film Festival
| Year | Award | Film | Director (production countries) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Palme d’Or | “Chronique des années de braise” | Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina (Algeria) |
| 1987 | Jury Prize (shared) | “Yeelen” | Souleymane Cissé (Mali) |
| 1990 | Grand Prix (shared) | “Tilaï” | Idrissa Ouédraogo (Burkina Faso) |
| 2010 | Jury Prize | “Un homme qui crie” (A Screaming Man) | Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (France, Belgium, Chad) |
| 2019 | Grand Prix | “Atlantique” | Mati Diop (France, Senegal, Belgium) |
| 2023 | Un Certain Regard Freedom Prize | “Goodbye Julia” | Mohamed Kordofani (Sudan, Egypt, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Sweden) |
| 2025 | Caméra d’Or special mention | “My Father’s Shadow” | Akinola Davies Jr (United Kingdom, Nigeria) |
How the festival’s prizes work: how the Cannes Film Festival works.
International Emmy Awards
| Year | Category | Winner | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Digital Program: Children & Young People | “Shujaaz.FM” (Well Told Story) | Kenya |
| 2014 | Digital Program: Children & Young People | “Shujaaz.FM Reloaded” (Well Told Story) | Kenya |
| 2015 | Documentary | “Miners Shot Down” (Uhuru Productions) | South Africa |
| 2022 | Kids: Factual & Entertainment | “My Better World” (Fundi Films, MAAN Creative, Impact(ed) International) | South Africa |
The International Emmys are run separately from the U.S. Primetime Emmys. See how the International Emmy Awards work.
What is still being checked
- Primetime Emmys: we have not yet verified an African-born winner against the Television Academy’s records, so this section is not included yet.
- International Emmys before 2012: an Egyptian winner in 2005 has been reported elsewhere, but we could not confirm it in the International Academy’s winners archive, so it is not listed.
- If you know of a verified win we have missed, send the official link through our contact page.
How we update this
We check each organisation’s winners list after every ceremony and add new African winners with a link to the official record. Dates and names follow the official records.
Related: Grammy winners from Nigeria, how Grammy voting works, how Oscar voting works and our Afrobeats chart tracker.
Sources
- Recording Academy: 8th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 30th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 37th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 47th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 48th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 49th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 50th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 51st Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 52nd Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 53rd Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 54th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 56th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 57th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 58th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 60th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 61st Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 62nd Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 63rd Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 64th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 65th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 66th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 67th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Recording Academy: 68th Annual Grammy Awards winners
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: 42nd Academy Awards (1970)
- Academy: 49th Academy Awards (1977)
- Academy: 76th Academy Awards (2004)
- Academy: 78th Academy Awards (2006)
- Academy: 86th Academy Awards (2014)
- Academy: 93rd Academy Awards (2021)
- Festival de Cannes: Chronique des années de braise
- Festival de Cannes: Yeelen
- Festival de Cannes: Tilaï
- Festival de Cannes: Un homme qui crie
- Festival de Cannes: Atlantique
- Festival de Cannes: Goodbye Julia
- Festival de Cannes: My Father’s Shadow
- International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences: International Emmy winners archive
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