At the 2026 Grammy Awards, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a pioneer of Afrobeat, will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Along with other global titans including Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Cher, and Paul Simon, Kuti will receive this distinction. The Recording Academy’s CEO, Harvey Mason Jr., calls the recipients “an extraordinary group whose influence spans generations, genres, and the very foundation of modern music” in an official statement.
Despite not winning a Grammy while he was alive, Fela has won multiple posthumous honors for his extensive contributions to international music. Most notably, he was admitted into the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame for his 1976 album Zombie.
Femi and Seun Kuti, his sons, were the recipients of the honor. “Our father’s legacy lives on,” Femi stated in a social media statement. On behalf of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, we are thrilled to accept this Grammy Hall of Fame award. People all throughout the world are still inspired and brought together by his music.
The Recording Academy’s National Trustees offer this Lifetime Achievement Award to “performers who, during their lifetime, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording,” according to the official statement.
There is no denying Fela’s influence on global music and Nigerian campaigning. He is still regarded as one of Nigeria’s most audacious and politically active musicians. On a technical level, his work combined American funk, jazz, and soul with regional instruments and genres like Ghanaian highlife. The first iteration of the more modern, pop-leaning Afrobeats genre of the 2010s, the often cited Afrobeat, was born. Some of the biggest artists in the world, like as Beyoncé, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Kelly Rowland, and many more, have sampled and referenced Fela’s work. His influence is still felt today in literature, fashion, art, and social consciousness.
Afrobeat Rebellion, a Nigerian exhibition, most recently offered a comprehensive look into Fela’s legacy as a creative musician and a fervent supporter of Black liberation.
To cap off a historic year for the legendary artist and his enduring legacy, this Lifetime Achievement Award seems appropriate.
On the eve of Grammy Sunday, at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony, the award will be given out.
Culled from Okayafrica online.
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