Zakes Bantwini, Wouter Kellerman and Nomcebo Zikode win Grammy award

Zakes Bantwini, Wouter Kellerman and Nomcebo Zikode are officially Grammy Award winners.
The trio won the Best Global Music Performance award for their hit Bayethe at music’s most prestigious event in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
“This moment right here to anybody who’s in Africa just proves and affirms that every dream is valid,” Zakes Bantwini said in his acceptance speech.
Zakes Bantwini, Wouter Kellerman and Nomcebo Zikode are officially Grammy Award winners.

The trio won the award for the Best Global Music Performance in the Global Music category for their hit Bayethe at music’s most prestigious event in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

“Thank you so much. This is such a beautiful moment on the road to sharing South African music and culture with the world,” Kellerman said during his acceptance speech.

Zakes Bantwini added: “I just want to say, we are coming from Africa, South Africa. And this moment right here to anybody who’s in Africa just proves and affirms that every dream is valid.”

Taking to the mic after her colleagues, Zikode sang a portion of Jerusalema before thanking her family and team.

This is Kellerman’s second Grammy award and both Zakes Bantwini’s and Zikode’s first.

“Unkulunkulu uNumber 1 (God is Number 1),” Zakes Bantwini wrote, retweeting the winning announcement.

“We won the Grammy for the Best Global Music Performance for our song ‘Bayethe’ Thanks so much to everybody for all the support – this is for the whole of South Africa! Awesomeness,” Kellerman wrote, also sharing the news on his social media.

After the event, Zikode shared photos of herself, Zakes Bantwini and Kellerman posing with their trophies. She captioned the glamorous snaps: “Your Best Global Music Performers of 2023 from South Africa”

In an interview with News24 ahead of the awards show, Zakes Bantwini predicted their win, saying, “I’m very optimistic that we’re going to come back with it. I have such a very positive vibe about it. Somehow, I’m content.”

The musician added that he already felt like a winner:

“This is not a PR answer, but to me, I’ve already won. Why I’m saying we’ve already won is because I’ll die Zakes Bantwini, a Grammy-nominated artist, forever, like forever. You’ll never mention me and not say that now. So that is already a win because there are some artists who might never be able to get that.”

Zakes Bantwini, Kellerman and Zikode’s win marks the tenth time a Grammy Award will come home to South Africa.

In 2022, South African DJ and music producer Black Coffee won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album for Subconsciously.