Rapper K’naan makes history after clinching Grammy award

Somali-Canadian rapper K'naan has made history by winning the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Song for Social Change for his 2023 hit single "Refugee."

Many Grammy viewers were pleasantly surprised when K'naan received the award during the event held on February 3.

The song, released as a tribute to refugees worldwide, has garnered praise for its powerful lyrics and uplifting message.

K'naan, who has always addressed his personal experiences as a refugee in his music, takes pride in the term "refugee" and emphasises collectivity and community in the song.

The music video has garnered widespread acclaim for its juxtaposition of scenes from refugee camps and boats with footage of K'naan taking the train and singing in the street.

As of mid-2023, there were 110 million forcibly displaced people across the globe, including over 670,000 Somali refugees.

K'naan's win is a significant recognition of the struggles faced by refugees worldwide.

Born in Somalia, K'naan's family fled to North America in 1991, settling in Toronto. His music career took off with the hit single "Wavin' Flag," but he has always stayed true to his roots and used his platform to raise awareness about refugee issues.

K'naan performs onstage at The 2017 Rescue Dinner hosted by IRC at New York Hilton Midtown on November 2, 2017, in New York City. (Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images via AFP)

In "Refugee," K'naan emphasises collectivity and community, pushing back against language that strips refugees of their individuality. "It takes both courage and desperation to abandon your home for somewhere unfamiliar," he says. "You set aside whatever it is that once made you an individual to join a kind of faceless mass."

Numerous awards

K'naan's music has earned him numerous awards, including a Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year and a spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. However, with "Refugee," he hopes to spark a deeper conversation about the global refugee crisis and the need for empathy and understanding.

Music seems to run in his blood. His auntie is the famous Somali songbird Halima Khalif Omar, known as Magool, and his grandfather was a poet.

K’naan was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, on April 16, 1978, and grew up and studied in Wardhiigley district, later renamed Warta Nabadda.

He fled Somalia as a 13-year-old refugee in 1991 together with his mother and his siblings and briefly lived in Kenya before joining his father in New York.

His family later permanently relocated to Toronto, Canada, where he continued with his studies.

His first international stage was at the 1999 United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Geneva, where he performed a spoken word poem criticising the UN for its failed response to the Somalia civil war in 1991.

Rapper K'naan performs at the Millennium Development Goals Awards Concert in the UN General Assembly Hall on March 17, 2009 in New York City. (Photo: Michael Nagle/Getty Images/AFP)

He attended the Geneva UNHCR event by Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, who invited him to contribute to his album Building Bridges in 2001 and its subsequent tour of the world in 2002, which further opened doors for K’naan.

He later returned to Nairobi to record one of his first rap songs, "Soobax,” from the album “The Dusty Foot Philosopher." Soobax in Somali means “get out." The song was released in 2005.

The song was a hit in Nairobi then and was a depiction of what was happening back in his native country, Somalia, where a bloody civil war was raging.

In the song, he criticised the warlord for fueling the war in Somalia. In the video shot in Nairobi, K’naan fused Somali beats with African beats and worked closely with the Kenyan musical group Kalamashaka.

The video was shot in Eastleigh and Nairobi’s CBD.

He went ahead to release other albums, including one of his other hits, Wavin’ Flag, from the album Troubadour in 2009.

Wavin’ Flag was chosen as the anthem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.