“Remembering Harry Belafonte: Legendary Singer and Civil Rights Activist”

2023-04-25 13:55:05

New York

Harry Belafonte has died at the age of 96

In the 1950s, when racial segregation was still rampant, his rise to the upper echelons of show business was historic.

updated25. April 2023, 15:55

Known for the Banana Boat song: Singer Harry Belafonte dies at the age of 96.

Imago

• Most people know Harry Belafonte from the long drawn-out “Daaaay-O” from his hit “Banana Boat Song”.

• Now the US singer has died at the age of 96.

• He has been a mentor, advisor and critic to many younger black stars.

The US singer, entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte is dead. He died of heart failure on Tuesday, said his spokesman Ken Sunshine from the PR company Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis. His wife Pamela was at his side in New York at the time of his death. Belafonte was 96 years old.

Belafonte was one of the first black entertainers to achieve stardom in the United States. With films and hits like his “Banana Boat Song”, best known for the exclamation “Day-O, Daaaay-O”, he also became known internationally. According to contemporary witnesses, after his most active period as a performer in the 1960s, Belafonte created an even greater legacy by campaigning for the rights of black people in the USA – in the spirit of black actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson, who represented Belafonte was an important mentor.

Hardly any other celebrity in the USA has devoted so much time and effort to political activism in the past few decades. Belafonte was a bridge builder between Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.

Belafonte criticized Beyoncé and Jay-Z

In addition to taking part in protest marches and benefit concerts, he also helped recruit and organize supporters. Working closely with civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., among others, he risked his own life and wealth for the cause that meant so much to him.

black artists a younger generation like Jay-Z and Beyoncé sometimes accused Belafonte of not fulfilling its responsibility to society. He has been a mentor to black stars like Usher, Common and Danny Glover, or South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba. He was fittingly cast in Spike Lee’s film BlacKkKlansman as an aging activist bringing the country’s history closer to younger ones.

The activist who never gave up

Belafonte’s friend, civil rights activist Andrew Young, once said that Belafonte was one of the few people who had become more radical as they got older. He never gave in, always confronting proponents of the separation between blacks and whites, the conservative financiers Charles and David Koch, but also with liberals from the northern US states and even with ex-President Barack Obama. In his own words, he is said to have asked Belafonte to be a little more lenient with him. Belafonte replied: “How do you know I haven’t already done that?”.

Belafonte, who was born in Harlem as the son of illegal immigrants, achieved his fame in show business from the 1950s onwards. In 1954 he won a Tony Award for his role in John Murray Anderson’s musical revue Almanac. Five years later, he became the first black artist to win an Emmy for his television show Tonight with Harry Belafonte. His musical breakthrough “Calypso” from 1955 is considered the first album by a single artist to officially sell millions in the USA and sparked enthusiasm for Caribbean rhythms. Belafonte’s admirers at the time included young Bob Dylan, who played the harmonica on Belafonte’s “Midnight Special.”

Belafonte was married three times, most recently to photographer Pamela Frank, and had four children. Three of them – Shari, David and Gina – became actors.

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(DPA/kat)

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