Shatta Wale Earns First Grammys Credit

Ghanaian singer, Shatta Wale has earned his first-ever Grammys credit for the 2020 edition.

His feature on Beyoncé’s acclaimed “The Lion King: The Gift” album made this happen as his name was on The Recording Academy’s nomination list which was released Wednesday, November 20.

Shatta Wale’s effort on track 19 – “Already” – with Major Lazer made waves across the African continent when it was released in July this year.

The 27-track soundtrack which features some top international artistes including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, and Mr. Eazi, was nominated in the “Best Pop Album” category.

The album competes with Billie Eilish’s “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” and “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande among other albums.

Congrats to him.

Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jr., (born October 17, 1984) is a Ghanaian-born producer and reggae-dancehall musician. He is known by his stage name Shatta Wale, formerly Bandana. His best known song is “Dancehall King”, which led to winning the Artiste of the Year at the 2014 edition of the Ghana Music Awards. Wale is also an actor, having appeared in the films Never Say Never,The trial of Shatta Wale and Shattered Lives.

Having achieved street credibility in a fairly undeveloped Ghanaian dancehall genre at the time, he achieved popularity with his 2004 single, “Moko Hoo”, which features Tinny. Then known in the industry as Bandana, the song earned him a Ghana Music Awards nomination. There afterwards, Bandana went missing in the music circus for nearly a decade until rebranding himself in 2013. He began releasing music under a new name, Shatta Wale, under his own record label (SM For Lyf Records).

In 2014, he peaked number 38 on E.tv’s “Top 100 Most Influential Ghanaians” Awards chart. He has since appeared on the chart each year. He was ranked “Most Influential Musician” on social media in 2017. he won 8 awards at the 3music awards in 2019

Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jr. was born in Accra, Ghana at the Police Hospital on October 17, 1984. The son of a couple from Accra and the Volta Region of Ghana, his father is Charles Nii Armah Mensah Sr, a politician, businessman and legal practitioner. Shatta Wale attended Seven Great Princes Academy at Dansoman, a suburb in Accra, where he demonstrated an affinity for arts and acted in a popular Akan drama series, By the Fireside, at the National Theatre of Ghana. Growing up, he lived with his family in Laterbiokorshie, Dansoman and then later Korle Gonno during his formative years. In a Facebook live video, Wale stated that he did not enjoy motherly love and care at the early stages of his life because a pastor caused a separation between his parents which made him remain under his father’s care and later ending up on the streets. His mother is Elsie Evelyn Avemegah.