Harry Belafonte, a 96-year-old musician and performer, used his fame as a Calypso sensation to promote charitable and civil rights causes.
“Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” “Jamaica Farewell,” and “Jump in the Line” are a couple of Belafonte’s well-known songs”.
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Congestive heart failure was the cause of death, according to his spokesperson Ken Sunshine, who spoke to the New York Times. He passed away in his apartment in Manhattan.
A low-income Caribbean immigrant couple gave birth to Belafonte on March 1st, 1927, in Harlem, New York City. Prior to moving back to New York City in the 1940s, he spent a significant portion of his formative years in Jamaica with his grandmother.
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He acknowledged in an interview with People Magazine that his formative years were “the most trying times of my life”.
The author stated, “My mother loved me, but she also expressed great sorrow that I was left alone.”.
He graduated from high school early in order to join the Navy during World War II. He returned to New York to pursue a career in theater after his service was completed. Belafonte went to the same drama school as Marlon Brando and Walter Matthau, according to Biography.
He also became well-known as a jazz club performer at the same time, thanks to Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, among other musicians.
For his Broadway debut performance in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, Belafonte received a Tony Award. His roles as Dorothy Dandridge’s counterpart in films like the musical Carmen Jones helped him quickly become well-known.
Additionally, he contributed to the international popularity of traditional Trinbagonian Calypso music. His 1956 album Calypso was well-received and the first to sell a million copies. It also contained the song he made popular, “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”.
Later, Belafonte said to The New York Times, “That song is a way of life. It is a song about my parents, grandparents, and uncles, as well as the Jamaican men and women who toil in the cane and banana fields.
He made history by becoming the first Black person to receive an Emmy for his 1959 television program Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte.
Belafonte gained notoriety as the “King of Calypso” but was also well-known for being an activist his entire life.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and him developed into close pals. and actively supported the US civil rights movement by taking part in numerous protests and rallies. Paul Robeson, an activist and fellow performer, served as his mentor.
Paul Robeson was a major influence on Belafonte early on; you could say he gave him his backbone, according to what he later wrote in his autobiography. Martin Luther King Jr. was the next. He kept me going.
In 1963, King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington, which he assisted in planning. Additionally, he supported voter registration drives and the 1961 Freedom Rides. Along with securing MLK’s release on bail, he also raised funds to help other civil rights activists get their freedom.
Belafonte was an activist all of his life. He put together a supergroup of well-known musicians in the 1980s to record “We Are the World,” a song for African famine relief that went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time and raise more than $10 million when it was released.
In addition to being active in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, he was a vocal opponent of the Iraq War.
Today, Belafonte is admired for his creative music and unwavering dedication to the civil rights movement.
The National Medal of Arts, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the honorary Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are just a few of the lifetime achievement awards he has won.
He also holds the National Medal of Arts and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
He was the oldest living member when he was admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
Be at peace, Harry Belafonte. a fantastic musician who dedicated his life to upholding his principles.
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