Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: Afrobeat legend to get prestigious Grammy award

Twenty Nine years after the death of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the Afrobeat progenitor will be honoured with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement award by the Recording Academy, producers of the global music award, Grammy.

For the 68th edition of the awards ceremony, which takes place on January 31, 2026, Fela will be honoured with the lifetime achievement awards ahead of his 88th posthumous birthday on October 15, 2026. The award will be received in Los Angeles, United States of America by Yeni Kuti, Femi Kuti and Kunle Kuti, representing the family and the wider Afrobeat community.

The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, established in 1962, honours performers with outstanding creative contributions to recording, and who, during their lifetimes, made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording. The first recipient of the award was Bing Crosby in 1963.

The Academy credits the late Fela with shaping modern Nigerian Afrobeats, influencing global artists such as Beyoncé, Paul McCartney and Thom Yorke, and leaving a legacy that lives on through his family, the Kalakuta Museum and the New Afrika Shrine. As the creator of Afrobeat, he composed, recorded and performed over 200 songs.

In 2025, Fela’s 1976 album ‘Zombie’ was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The honour was accepted by his sons Femi and Seun Kuti. Although Fela never received a Grammy nomination while alive, he has now been rewarded for his inestimable contributions to the world of music with the posthumous honour and Lifetime Achievement Awards. His sons and grandson have earned multiple Grammy nominations. Between the sons and grandson, the Kuti family has a total of eight Grammy nominations with Femi Kuti receiving six across the World Music and Global Music categories, Seun Kuti receiving one nomination in the Best World Music Album category and Made Kuti receiving a nomination.

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, a Nigerian musician, bandleader and activist who pioneered Afrobeat lived between October 15, 1938 and August 2, 1997. He became one of the most influential cultural figures in modern African history.

He studied classical music at Trinity College of Music, London – now known as Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance – from 1959, playing in jazz and rock bands and experimenting with styles that later shaped Afrobeat. 

Fela developed and created an uncommon sound by fusing highlife, jazz, funk, and traditional Yoruba music with extended grooves, horn arrangements and politically charged lyrics. He christened it Afrobeat. This genre, Afrobeat, became the sonic foundation for modern Nigerian and African popular music widely known as Afrobeats. Many Nigerian and African artists draw their influences from Fela’s sounds and songs. Fela on Broadway, Fela and the Kalakuta Queens, Felabration art exhibitions and more are all part of Fela’s ever lasting legacy.

Fela’s activism saw him attacking military rule, corruption and social injustice in Nigeria, which led to repeated harassment, raids and imprisonment by successive military regimes through his reign as a musician.

Although Fela died two years before the current democratic dispensation in Nigeria, his children have preserved and grown his legacy. Yeni, Femi and Seun Kuti have become custodians of their father’s work while also extending and adapting his vision to contemporary African struggles and global platforms.

Yeni Kuti conceived Felabration, a festival in honour of the life of the musician and activist; The New Afrika Shrine, a living cultural hub that presents live Afrobeat performances, debates, and art rooted in Fela’s ethos is run by Femi and Yeni Kuti; and the Kalakuta Museum, Fela’s former residence in Ikeja, which functions as an archive and tourist site that keeps his story accessible to new audiences is managed by Kunle Kuti.

In the same vein, Yeni, Femi and Kunle Kuti have been formally recognised by courts as the administrators of Fela’s Estate, to which they collectively make key decisions about the use of Fela’s name, image, likeness and other intellectual property, ensuring that projects align with his values and the family’s long-term vision.

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