Bokanté receives Grammy nomination for What Heat

The album continues a relationship that band leader Michael League formed with Buckley and the orchestra through his work with Snarky Puppy on the album Sylva, which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2016.

Reacting to the news, League posted on the band’s social media: “We’re shocked and completely honored to be nominated for “Best World Music Album” in the 2020 Grammy Awards, alongside our good friends Jules Buckley and Metropole Orkest. Making music with them on the album “What Heat” was an incredible experience for us, and this makes it even sweeter. Thank you to everyone who has supported us as we get this thing off the ground! We love ya.”

The members of Bokanté come from all corners of the world, with the band’s name meaning ‘exchange’ in French Creole. “I wanted to put together a band that traces the blues from its roots in Africa and the Arab world throughout the diaspora and into a modern context,” said League.

Upon its release, The Sunday Times said the music attained a ‘hypnotic grandeur‘, whilst The Observer described Guadaloupe-born singer Malika Tirolien’s vocals as ‘supple, capable of both delicacy and force, and with hip-hop inflections‘.

Also included in the Best World Music Album category are Angélique Kidjo, for her album of Celia Cruz songs, Celia, Nigerian pop sensation Burna Boy, Turkey’s Altin Gün and Haitian-American flutist, composer, and vocalist Nathalie Joachim, for her album with Spektral Quartet.

The Grammy awards ceremony will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday 27 January 2020.