Greg Borowsky was in an Uber last week when a friend called to tell him that a song he had composed, Let Me Go, had just been nominated for a Grammy Award. “He was screaming. I started screaming. The Uber driver started screaming. Everyone was screaming!” he recalls with delight.
The song was nominated in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category in the 63rd Grammy Awards which will take place on 31 January 2021. The Grammys (originally called the Gramophone Awards) are presented by the Recording Academy to recognise achievements in the music industry. They are considered one of the four major annual American entertainment awards.
“It still hasn’t sunk in fully, but it’s been amazing to receive so many messages of love and support from all over the world, which has made it start to feel real. It’s an absolute honour and dream come true,” says Borowsky.
Borowsky grew up in Johannesburg, and attended King David Victory Park. Although he played the piano and starred in school plays during his younger years, he eventually studied to be a chartered accountant and went into business, dabbling in music only on the side. But in 2014, he packed up his life and headed to New York with “absolutely no idea what was next”, but wanting to make it in the music world. That he did, winning the Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Show in New York for the musical Polkadots in 2018.
Now, his career is soaring to even greater heights. Let Me Go was written with Mykal Kilgore, a singer, songwriter, artist, and activist. “I knew Mykal from the Broadway community. He was already well-known in the industry as one of the best singers in New York. So I had asked him to feature on a song of mine when I was putting together my own album,” says Borowsky.
“But as fate would have it, when we got together, we started working on another song as well. I was on the piano playing around with chords and progressions, he was free-styling, singing verses and hooks, until we felt the lightning had struck and we had something to work with. Then I recorded a basic piano guide track for him to write lyrics to, and so began the creation of what would become Let Me Go. Three years later, he finished recording his full album A Man Born Black, and I was thrilled that he chose Let Me Go to be the lead single.”
Working with Kilgore was “an amazing experience, as he was already so well respected in Broadway circles as an incredible vocalist. He had been in Hair, The Book of Mormonand Motown, and this was his first solo album. Working with him was pretty electric. I have never seen a lyricist write the way he did. No pen or paper. He just asked me to keep playing the piano over and over and he would close his eyes, freestyle verses and hooks off the top of his head without missing a beat.”
When it comes to writing music, “Every song is different and has its own process,” says Borowsky. “A lot of people say there’s no right or wrong when it comes to writing a song, but most of the time I think you just know when you have something that ‘feels right’. This one happened so quickly and organically [with Kilgore], I think we both had the feeling we were onto something with it, but you still just never know if anyone else will feel the same way. That’s the excitement I guess.”
Borowsky believes he got to this point through a combination of luck and persistence. “I was lucky to be able to have had the opportunity to come to New York and chase a dream, but also to [be able to] not stop trying even when it seemed like luck was out the window. Arriving in New York was incredibly intimidating as you quickly realise how talented and driven everyone is, but I’ve tried to turn that intimidation into inspiration, and didn’t want to waste the opportunity.”
In a pre-pandemic world, the period before the Grammys would be “a campaign period for the nominees, with events, dinners, and parties where the artists get to meet, network, and sometimes perform for Grammy voters all around the country”, says Borowsky. “However, with the pandemic, no one quite knows how the next two months will play out leading up to the Grammys.
“It still feels crazy to me that we’re up against some of my favourite artists, like Ledisi and Yebba, Chloe X Halle, Marcus & Jean Baylor, so I’m still pinching myself and am just truly honoured to be nominated alongside them,” he says.
Meanwhile, he’s working on other exciting projects. “I’m working on a Mandela musical in partnership with the Mandela family, which will premier in London in 2022. We’ll be recording a Broadway all-star concept album of the musical next year, so I’ll be in ‘musical-theatre land’ for the next 12 to 18 months. If we win the Grammy, I’d love to keep working with as many artists as I can, and hopefully it will make some of those collaborations possible.”
Borowsky says his phone hasn’t stopped buzzing with messages of love and support from the community back home as well as around the world, “so thank you so much to everyone who has reached out. It really means the world”.
