The Grammy Awards posthumously recognized Nigeria’s Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti with a Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday night, making him the first African musician to be recognized so.
The acknowledgement comes almost thirty years after Fela’s passing and long after his influence transformed international music, following a lifetime of conflicts with successive powers in Nigeria.
On Saturday, the eve of the major Grammys gala, he was one of several performers to receive the honor at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Cher, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, and Chaka Khan were among the other honorees, with Femi Kuti, Fela’s son, accepting the honor on his father’s behalf.
Femi Kuti
Afrobeat, a blend of jazz, funk, and African rhythms, was created in the 1970s by multi-instrumentalist and lively performer Fela.
“Fela’s influence spans generations, inspiring artists such as Beyonce, Paul McCartney and Thom Yorke, and shaping modern Nigerian Afrobeats,”
said a citation on the Grammys list of this year’s honorees. This laid the foundation for Afrobeats, a later genre with roots in Nigeria that has drawn a global audience by fusing traditional African rhythms with contemporary pop sounds.
The renowned singer and activist, commonly referred to as the “Black President,” passed away in 1997 at the age of 58.
His grandson Made and sons Femi and Seun Kuti carry on his tradition.
Throughout his career, Fela was regularly detained by military regimes, sometimes for political activism and other times for alleged theft, which he refuted.
When he published his well-known album “Zombie” in 1974, it was widely regarded by the ruling military authorities as a rant directed at them. This was his first encounter with the law.
His songs were lengthy, rebellious, and overtly critical of corrupt governments.
Prior to the ceremony, his manager, Rikki Stein, expressed confidence that the prize would “significantly uplift Fela’s music” over the phone from Los Angeles.
