Oakland artist Fantastic Negrito wins yet another Grammy Award
Oakland artist Fantastic Negrito won his third Grammy Award on Sunday.
He won for his latest outing — 2020’s “Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?” — which topped offerings from the Ruthie Foster Big Band, G. Love, Bettye LaVette and North Mississippi Allstars in the category of best contemporary blues album.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much everyone,” Fantastic Negrito said in his short acceptance speech, which was livestreamed over the Grammy website (grammy.com). “What a great honor to win this award.”
The vocalist, born Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, then went on to address what’s been happening in the world over the last year or so.
“First, I am just thankful to be alive,” he said. “This has been a rough, rough time for everyone out there. I just want to give a moment of silence for the half million people that have perished in this country — and like the 2.6 million across the world. Let’s give our prayers and a moment of silence to them.”
Although the award was handed out around 1 p.m. during the regular pre-show ceremony in Los Angeles — prior to the prime time event kicking off on CBS-TV at 5 p.m. — Fantastic Negrito streamed his acceptance speech from a party he was hosting in Oakland.
Guests at the party were expected to include Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Dwayne Wiggins (of Tony! Toni! Toné! fame), Kev Choice and Zion I as well as members of both the Oakland A’s and Golden State Warriors.
Fantastic Negrito has dominated the best contemporary blues album field at the Grammys in recent years. He also won the category in 2017 with “The Last Days of Oakland” and in 2019 with “Please Don’t Be Dead.”
That gives him three victories in this category in the span of five years.
To put that in perspective, consider that only two artists have won the best contemporary blues album field more times than Fantastic Negrito.
Those two artists are Buddy Guy and Keb’ Mo’, who are tied for first place with four victories each. Guy won in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 2011, while triumphed in 1997, 1999, 2005 and 2018.
Fantastic Negrito is tied for the next spot on the list with three wins with Stevie Ray Vaughan and fellow Bay Area artist Taj Mahal.
He wasn’t the only Bay Area artist to emerge victorious Sunday. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony won in the classical compendium category for “From the Diary of Anne Frank & Meditations on Rilke.” The win recognized Thomas not only as a conductor but a composer as well.
The June 2020 album released on the symphony’s SFS label featured symphony recordings at Davies Symphony Hall of two compositions by Thomas, who recently retired after 25 years as the orchestra’s music director. “From the Diary of Anne Frank” was recorded in 2018 and “Rilke” was recorded in January 2020.