<\/p>\n
Fela Kuti<\/span><\/span> will be posthumously honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Grammys, becoming the first African artist to receive the distinction.<\/p>\n The recognition comes nearly three decades after Fela\u2019s death and years after his influence reshaped global music.<\/p>\n He is among several artists to receive the award at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday, on the eve of the main Grammys gala.<\/p>\n Other recipients include Cher, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon and Chaka Khan.<\/p>\n In the 1970s, Fela, a multi-instrumentalist and performer, created Afrobeat, blending jazz, funk and African rhythms.<\/p>\n The genre later laid the foundation for Afrobeats, which combines African rhythms with contemporary pop sounds and has gained global popularity.<\/p>\n The Grammys introduced the category of best African performance in 2024, with Nigerian Afrobeats artists dominating the nominations.<\/p>\n Three of the five nominees in the category this year are Nigerians, following Tems\u2019 win last year.<\/p>\n \u201cFela\u2019s influence spans generations, inspiring artists such as Beyonc\u00e9, Paul McCartney and Thom Yorke, and shaping modern Nigerian Afrobeats,\u201d the Grammys said in a citation.<\/p>\n Known as the \u201cBlack President\u201d, Fela died in 1997 at the age of 58.<\/p>\n His legacy lives on through his sons, Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti, and his grandson, Made Kuti.<\/p>\n \u201cThis acknowledgment coming at this time when all three of us are present, it feels wonderful,\u201d Made Kuti told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels wonderful that all of us are still practicing Afrobeat, still taking the legacy as far as we can take it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Yemisi Ransome-Kuti, Fela\u2019s first cousin and head of the family, described the award as \u201ca celebration for the African people\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother African is being celebrated,\u201d she said, adding that recognitions should not wait until artists are dead.<\/p>\n She said Fela would likely have reacted by saying \u201cbetter late than never\u201d.<\/p>\n Fela was frequently arrested by military governments during his career over political activism and other allegations he denied.<\/p>\n His songs were known for their length, defiance and explicit criticism of governments and corruption.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fela Kuti will be posthumously honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Grammys, becoming the first African artist to receive the distinction. The recognition comes nearly three decades after Fela\u2019s death and years after his influence reshaped global music. He is among several artists to receive the award at a ceremony in Los Angeles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":240719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[2610,3051],"class_list":["post-240718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-fela-kuti","tag-lifetime-achievement-award-by-the-grammys"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/FelaKuti-800x400-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}