MTV VMAs Drop Best Afrobeats Category After Three Years, Raising Questions Over Genre’s Global Recognition
By Emmanuel Daniji
The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) have left Afrobeats fans asking questions after the unveiling of this year’s nominations revealed that the Best Afrobeats category is missing from the awards list.
The decision is particularly striking because the category was introduced only three years ago, at a time when Afrobeats was rapidly expanding beyond Africa and becoming one of the most visible sounds in global popular music.
MTV has not, at the time of writing, publicly explained why the category was removed from the 2026 nominations.
A Category That Arrived With ‘Calm Down’
The Best Afrobeats category made its debut at the 2023 VMAs, giving the rapidly growing African genre a dedicated space at one of the world’s most prominent music award ceremonies.
Its inaugural winner was Rema and Selena Gomez, who took home the award for their international hit “Calm Down.”
The recognition was significant because it represented a major acknowledgement of the growing commercial and cultural influence of Afrobeats outside Africa.
The following two editions further established the category, with South African superstar Tyla winning in both 2024 for “Water” and 2025 for “Push 2 Start.”
In just three years, the award had become a visible part of the VMAs’ relationship with African music.
So Why Is Afrobeats Missing?
That is the question currently hanging over the 2026 nominations.
There has been no official explanation from MTV announcing why the category was discontinued, making it difficult to determine whether the decision is permanent, part of a restructuring of the awards or simply a change in how MTV intends to classify genres.
The timing, however, has generated surprise because Afrobeats itself has not disappeared from the international music conversation.
African artistes continue to collaborate with major global stars, perform on international stages and appear across major award categories.
The absence of a dedicated category therefore creates an interesting contradiction: Afrobeats is becoming more global, yet its dedicated recognition at the VMAs has suddenly disappeared.
African Artistes Are Still Represented
The removal of Best Afrobeats does not mean African music has been completely excluded from this year’s VMAs.
Burna Boy received a nomination in the Best Collaboration category alongside Colombian superstar Shakira, while Tems earned recognition in the Best R&B category.
Those nominations demonstrate that African artistes can compete outside genre-specific African categories.
But there is an important distinction.
A dedicated Afrobeats award gives the genre itself visibility. It recognises not just individual artistes but the musical movement and cultural influence behind them.
Without it, African artistes are competing within broader categories alongside musicians from different musical traditions.
Afrobeats Is Not Alone
Interestingly, Afrobeats is not the only genre category that has disappeared from the 2026 nominations.
MTV has also dropped the long-running Best Rock category, which has existed in different forms since 1989.
Rock artistes are instead being accommodated under the broader Best Alternative category.
That development may offer an important clue about what is happening with the VMAs.
Rather than specifically targeting Afrobeats, MTV may be moving towards a broader awards structure with fewer genre-specific categories.
If that is the case, the disappearance of Best Afrobeats could be part of a larger attempt to simplify the award structure and place more musical styles under wider classifications.
But Afrobeats Fans Have a Reason to Be Concerned
Even with that possibility, the decision is likely to disappoint many African music fans.
The Best Afrobeats category was created at a time when the genre was becoming increasingly influential in global pop culture.
It provided an annual moment when the world’s attention was deliberately directed towards African music and its leading stars.
Its removal after only three editions could therefore be viewed by some as a step backwards, particularly when Afrobeats continues to expand its audience around the world.
For an industry that has spent years celebrating the global rise of African music, dedicated international recognition remains important.
A Changing Global Music Landscape
The 2026 VMAs may ultimately be reflecting a broader change in the way international music awards classify genres.
Music is becoming increasingly difficult to place inside rigid categories. African artistes regularly blend Afrobeats with R&B, hip-hop, dancehall, pop and other sounds, while international musicians increasingly incorporate African rhythms into their own music.
That raises a legitimate question for award organisers: Should music awards continue creating narrowly defined genre categories, or should they move towards broader classifications that reflect how modern music is actually being made?
MTV’s decision appears to lean towards the latter, although the network has yet to publicly explain its reasoning.
For now, one thing is clear: the Best Afrobeats category has disappeared from the 2026 VMAs after only three years, and the African music community is waiting to find out why.
And perhaps the bigger question is not simply where Afrobeats went, but whether the world’s biggest music institutions still believe the genre needs its own seat at the table.
