I worked on a Grammy Award-winning song but had no idea

Ghanaian musician, flutist and songwriter Dela Botri has revealed that he once worked on a song that was nominated and later won a Grammy Award, but was unaware of the song’s achievement until years later.

Speaking in an interview with Kafui Dey on August 12, 2026, Dela Botri recounted how he became involved in the international music project.

According to him, his involvement began in 2015, when he was invited by Ghanaian arts professional and Creative Arts researcher Gameli Tordzro to participate in a programme in Denmark.

He explained that he was tasked with learning and transcribing the music before the other musicians arrived, because some of them read music through notation.

“Yes, I’ve worked on a Grammy-nominated song. In 2015, I was invited by Gameli Tordzro for a programme they organised. They wanted to learn about the song, so I took the lead to learn before all the musicians came,” he said.

He continued, “Some of them read in notation, so I needed to transcribe the music first, then harmonise it so that we all could perform together.”

Dela Botri stated that after completing the work in Denmark, he returned to Ghana, where he received an unexpected call from a movie producer about another international collaboration.

“A day after I was done with the work in Denmark, I had to come back to Ghana. I had a call from a movie producer that there were some people from America and they wanted to work with me,” he recounted.

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The musician noted that he was asked to meet the team at Movenpick Hotel, where they were staying, and after discussing the project, they agreed on a fee.

The American team subsequently asked him to recommend a recording studio where they could work on the project.

“I went there to discuss everything with them and we agreed on a fee. They then asked me to recommend a studio where we could record the project. I made some calls and we got a studio. They wanted me to work on two songs and we recorded them,” he shared.

However, Dela Botri mentioned that he had no idea that one of the songs he worked on would eventually receive recognition at the Grammy Awards.

“I didn’t even know one of the songs won a Grammy Award. I also didn’t know the title of the song until Lapigee went to research and told me it’s ‘Milo’,” he stated.

He explained that he is not someone who becomes overly excited about his contributions immediately after completing a project.

Dela Botri described himself as a researcher who prefers to focus on the work rather than immediately investigating the achievements of songs he has contributed to.

“I’m not hyper after writing. I’m a researcher. I research into the music and things like this. I feel like I’ve done the work already and it’s someone’s job to go and research,” he added.