Very few artists can actually tell that “Martin Luther King Jr nourished my soul”. And one of the few artists/activists was Harry Belafonte, the Caribbean-American pop star. Popularly known as the King of Calypso, he became one of America’s ingratiating and enduring civil rights activists. The effortlessly classy singer who popularized calypso in the U.S. around the 1950s, went on a liberal march for the country’s civil rights struggle for half a century.
Often juggling between being an artist and activist, Harry Belafonte made it clear in his 2011 memoir, “I wasn’t an artist who became an activist. I was an activist who became an artist, Ever since my mother had drummed it into me, I’d felt the need to fight injustice wherever I saw it, in whatever way I could.” As much as he liked to use his voice against injustice, the pop star also had a passion to heal a broken heart through his music. He died at the age of 96 on April 25, 2023.
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Harry Belafonte: Life, Career And Death
Harry Belafonte – one name, multiple talents! Born with Jamaican roots and shuttling between New York, Kingstone, and Jamaica, Belafonte struggled to overcome his colonial past. Although, it is his Jamaican roots that influenced his music style and the colonial past which attracted him towards civil activism. At an early age, he developed an interest and blaze for Broadway and performed at the American Negro Theater, which earned him a Tony Award for his spectacular performance in ‘John Murray Anderson’s Almanac’ in 1954.
Soon from Broadway theater, Harry Belafonte shifted his interest toward music, and in the year 1956, he ruled the music industry with two of his hit albums ‘Calypso‘ and ‘Belafonte‘. These two iconic albums soon became a landmark in American popular music. His music was a revolutionary artwork for Jamaican folk music. ‘Day-O‘, from the ‘Calypso‘ album, was an unforgettable Jamaican dockworker’s wail that sold more than one million copies. He also established Calypso which is an African Caribbean folk blend rooted in Trinidad and Tobago. It became an enduring component of the American music industry. This earned Belafonte the nickname – ‘King of Calypso’ from just a mere New York club singer. Belafonte was also the first Black artist to win an Emmy Award.
Harry Belafonte’s folk music career was interrupted by his civil-rights activism. His political belief was greatly inspired by actor, singer, and civil rights activist Pual Robeson. Belafonte supported the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s and was one of Martin Luther King Jr’s intimates. In 2005 the pop artist founded The Gathering of Justice. Throughout his entire life, all Belafonte wanted was to change the world, revolutionize society and fight injustice.
Sadly the legend of the folk music industry died at the age of 96 due to congestive heart failure at his home in New York City, which was confirmed by his longtime spokesperson Ken Sunshine to NBC News. Still, Harry Belafonte will remain immortal through the album of Calypso and his fight against injustice will be passed on to the youth.
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How Celebs Paid Tribute To The Legend
Stars including John Legend, Bernice King, and Jamie Lee Curtis shared their grief over the unfortunate death of the legend Harry Belafonte. Bernice King, the youngest child of Martin Luther and Coretta Scoot King expressed on Twitter her admiration for the legendary singer and spoke about their relationship “When I was a child, #HarryBelafonte showed up for my family in very compassionate ways. In fact, he paid for the babysitter for me and my sibling.”
John Legend, the singer of ‘All of Me‘ shared his grief by saying, “He inspired me so much personally. He became a friend of mine in the last 10 years or so, we spent some private time together. I learned at his feet basically, about all the great work he’s done over the years. If you think about what it means to be an artist and an activist, he was literally the epitome of what that was, and I don’t know if people know how much he did.” Legend also added that “Belafonte was a gifted artist and performer and used this platform in a subversive way because he would sneak messages in there, revolutionary messages.”
Ophrah Winfrey expressed her loss on Instagram and shared photos of herself interviewing Belafonte with the caption “Another ‘GREAT TREE’ has fallen.” Tiffany Haddish shared a photo of herself with Belafonte and rapper Common on Instagram with a heartfelt caption: “Rest in peace, King Harry Belafonte. I am so honored and Grateful that I got to sit at your feet and learn from you.”
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