The Recording Academy announced on December 19 that Fela Kuti, the pioneer of Afrobeat and a fierce political activist, has become the first African musician to be honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, per npr.org.
The posthumous honour places Fela, who died in 1997, alongside an elite group of legends including The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and Bob Marley. These awards are reserved for performers who have made “creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.”
“Fela Kuti’s music was a fearless voice for Africa,” said legendary Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour. “His rhythms carried truth, resistance, and freedom, inspiring generations to speak boldly through sound.”
Known affectionately as the “Black President,” Fela was a cultural titan who revolutionised music by blending traditional African rhythms with jazz, funk and psychedelic horns. His sound was famously expansive; his band often exceeded 30 members, featuring dual bass guitars and baritone saxophones.
A rebel against Western pop dominance, Fela sang almost exclusively in Nigerian Pidgin English to ensure his pan-African message reached the widest possible audience. He famously refused to follow industry norms, often releasing up to seven albums a year and refusing to perform songs live once they had been recorded. Some of his most celebrated works, such as Confusion, consisted of single, 45-minute tracks that defied standard radio formats.
Fela’s music became increasingly political following a 1969 trip to Los Angeles, where he befriended members of the Black Panther Party. He became a vitriolic critic of Nigeria’s military dictatorship and South African apartheid.
This defiance came at a heavy cost. In 1977, following the release of the scathing album Zombie, nearly 1,000 Nigerian soldiers attacked his Lagos compound. Kuti was beaten unconscious, and his mother, the activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, died from injuries sustained after being thrown from a window.
Despite the state-sponsored violence and numerous stints in prison – where Amnesty International designated him a “prisoner of conscience” – Fela’s influence only grew. Last year, Zombie was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, one of only four African recordings to receive the honour.
Since his death from AIDS-related complications in 1997, Kuti’s status has transitioned from a cult icon to a global symbol of resistance. His funeral in Lagos was attended by over a million people, and his life story later became the subject of the hit Broadway musical Fela!, produced by Jay-Z and Will Smith.
For modern artistes, he remains the ultimate “spiritual muse.” Malian singer Salif Keita noted: “Brother Fela was a great influence… He was a brave man. His legacy is undisputed.”
•Featured image: Musician Fela Kuti performs at Orchestra Hall in Detroit in 1986/Leni Sinclair/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives
