Zydeco/Cajun Music Gets Grammy Category:

It’s official, a new category has been established by the Trustees and the Awards and Nominations Committee of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences: Zydeco and Cajun Music will be added into the Folk Field. With this new category The Recording Academy has recognized the critical contributions of these “evolving genres” have made to the diverse musical landscape of this country.

Previously Louisiana Zydeco and Cajun Music recordings were entered in the general Contemporary and Traditional Folk categories. Contemporary Folk is the category that houses entries from Bob Dylan to Johnny Cash and Lucinda Williams to John Hiatt and was recently renamed Contemporary Folk/Americana, with up to 200 recordings being entered each year. Other Zydeco and Cajun Music recordings were entered in the Traditional Folk categories, which is a Music nominations. The last and only Cajun album to win a Grammy was in 1997 from the band BeauSoleil. The last Zydeco Grammy win was in 1985 with Rockin Sidney Simien from Lake Charles, Louisiana after Queen Ida and Clifton Chenier each smaller category yielding some Cajun won a Grammy in 1982 and 1983.

Now every year there will be five Zydeco and Cajun Music albums nominated for a Grammy and from now on there will be one Zydeco or Cajun Music album that will win a Grammy award every single year instead of once every 10-20 years.

This is a great testament to how important the indigenous Zydeco and Cajun Music artists are to the cultural and musical identity of this state. For decades these internationally known music genres have contributed significantly to cultural tourism and the cultural economy of Louisiana and now the source musicians, the creators of these indigenous genres, will be recognized next to their recording industry peers.