Harry Belafonte, American singer and civil rights activist, dies aged 96

Iconic artist of an era, Harry Belafonte mixed West African, Caribbean and New York influences to create music that was a great success. The one who was also an actor had become a major activist for civil rights and had linked up with Martin Luther King.

Bewitching voice and charming physique, Harry Belafonte, nicknamed “the king of calypso”, rose to fame in the 1950s and marked his time with his humanitarian convictions and his fight for civil rights in the United States. The iconic singer died on Tuesday at the age of 96, several American media reported.

Protector of the “Calypso”

Born in Harlem on March 1, 1927 to a Jamaican mother and a Martinican father, the singer spoke for these rhythms with Matilda, Day-O, Island in the Sun, Jamaica Farewell, Try to Remember Or Coconut Woman. It was as a child, when he lived in Jamaica, that George “Harry” Belafonte discovered calypso, a music with West African influences born in the carnivals of Trinidad and Tobago, which will seduce the American public with its exoticism.

Returning to the United States, he joined the Black Theater in Harlem after the war and staged several plays with his lifelong friend Sidney Poitier, before embarking on music where his charisma and his vocal qualities brought him rapid success, which would be the springboard for its commitment against racial segregation.

1st album in history with more than a million copies

First singer of ballads in cabarets, he made his mark in the early 1950s with a popular repertoire that mixed influences from American variety, Caribbean music and black culture from Harlem. In 1955, he triumphed with the title Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) and the scrapbook Calypso (1956) becomes the first in history to sell over a million copies.

He filled the halls and his recordings, including six Gold Records, were a worldwide success and earned him several Grammy Awards in 1960. At the same time, Belafonte played in particular in carmen jones by Otto Preminger (1954), The shot of the stairs (Robert Wise, 1959), Kansas City by Robert Altman (1996), Buck and his accompliceby Sidney Poitier (1972) and Bobby (Emilio Estevez, 2006) on the assassination of Bob Kennedy.

Advocate alongside Martin Luther King

He became the first black actor to play, in 1957, a love story with a white actress in An island in the sun by Robert Rossen, and also the first African-American to produce a television show and win an Emmy award (1959).

But the young man is not content to be a symbol. Quickly, he finances the campaign for civil rights and becomes close to Martin Luther King Jr. “When people think of activism, they always think it involves sacrifice, but I’ve always seen it as a privilege and an opportunity.“, he said in 2004 during a speech at Emory University.

In 1963, he raised 50,000 dollars, the equivalent of almost 500,000 today, to get out of Martin Luther King prison, at a time when artists were pocketing comfortable incomes. “I could have made 2 or 3 billion and ended up with some cruel addiction, but I chose to be a civil rights fighter instead.“, he explained in an interview with the Guardian in 2007.

Suspicious of politicians, he had met John Kennedy in 1960, inviting the then presidential candidate to his home. He was initially unconvinced by the senator seeking support, later reporting that Kennedy “knew very little about the black community“. But once elected, “JFK” appointed him cultural attaché of the Peace Corps. Later, in 1987, he was appointed goodwill ambassador for Unicef.

Honorary Oscar and controversial positions

Harry Belafonte spent time in Africa, notably in Kenya, and campaigned against apartheid in South Africa. In 1988, he dedicated his last album Paradise in Gazankulu to this cause. He is the main promoter of We are the World sung in 1985 by Michael Jackson and 45 American artists raising funds to fight famine in Ethiopia.

After opposing the war in Iraq, in 2006 he accused President George W. Bush of being a “terrorist“, not being better, according to him, than Osama bin Laden. He also takes controversial positions, getting angry with the heirs of Martin Luther King who criticize in particular his admiration for the Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, or reproaching in 2012 to the extremely wealthy couple black Jay Z and Beyoncé to have “turned their backs on social responsibilities“.

The dyslexic artist, who was not betting on success after dropping out of high school, serving in the army or working as a janitor, was showered with prestigious awards at the end of his life. Thus, in 2014, the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar because “from the beginning of his career he chose projects highlighting racism and inequalities“. Married three times, Harry Belafonte had three daughters and a son by his first two wives.