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The National Times - Nigeria's president pays tribute to Fela Kuti after Grammys Award

Nigeria's president pays tribute to Fela Kuti after Grammys Award

ECONOMY 01.02.2026
Nigeria's president pays tribute to Fela Kuti after Grammys Award
Nigeria's president pays tribute to Fela Kuti after Grammys Award / Photo: © AFP

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu on Sunday paid tribute to Afrobeat king Fela Kuti after his posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys, the first African artist to be honoured this way.

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After a lifetime of clashes with successive powers in Africa's most populous country, Fela was recognised nearly three decades after his death and long after his influence reshaped global music.

"Fela was more than a musician," Tinubu said in a statement day after the award was bestowed at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

"He was a fearless voice of the people, a philosopher of freedom, and a revolutionary force whose music confronted injustice and reshaped global sound," he added.

"The award is an affirmation of his enduring global influence and the foundational role he has played in the evolution and impact of Africa on modern music," he said.

In the 1970s, multi-instrumentalist Fela invented Afrobeat: a mixture of jazz, funk and African rhythms.

That laid the groundwork for Afrobeats -- a later genre that has attracted a global audience by blending traditional African rhythms with contemporary pop sounds, with its roots in Nigeria.

His children, including Femi Kuti received the award in Los Angeles on Saturday night. Davido, one of the Nigeria's leading stars riding the global Afrobeats craze was also seen with the Kuti family in Los Angeles.

Fela's grandson Made Kuti, who was nominated for a Grammy in 2022 said his grandfather "was on the same professional level as the best of the best in the world that have ever existed".

"There are not many people you can trace back as an originator of a style of music that would take that risk and be so creative that it's really, truly developed into a genre that lives on its own," he said from his home in Lagos Sunday.

A.M.Murray--TNT

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