Harry Belafonte, one of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history and a committed human rights activist, has died at the age of 96.
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Singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte has died at the age of 96, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
He was not only known as the "King of Calypso" for having popularized the Trinidadian Caribbean music style around the world in the 1950s, but also as an advocate for political and humanitarian causes. An early supporter of theCivil Rights movement alongside Martin Luther King, Belafonte remained committed throughout his life to the struggle against racial discrimination, marginalization, hunger, and poverty.
Harry Belafonte: A legend's life in pictures
He became a world star with his version of "The Banana Boat Song" in the 1950s. The "King of Calypso," who died at the age of 96, was not only a gifted entertainer, he was also deeply committed to human rights.
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Sounds from the Caribbean
His tunes are known around the world: "The Banana Boat Song" with its cheerful "Day-O," or "Matilda," about a girl who steals money from a young man before disappearing to Venezuela, as well as the Caribbean love song "Island in the Sun." Thanks to these popular songs, entire generations know Harry Belafonte, who has died at the age of 96.
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The 'King of Calypso'
In 1956, Belafonte had his breakthrough in pop music with the album "Calypso." Critics accused him of mixing calypso music with jazz and folk elements to create a canned pop sound. But Belafonte just laughed off the bad reviews, inviting his critics to a debate instead: "Anyone who tries to stop me with nonsense about what is or isn't commercial is in for a fight."
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Working with Nat King Cole
By 1960, Harry Belafonte and Nat King Cole were superstars. Together, they started a production company called Cole-Belafonte Enterprises, which supported many musicians of color. They are said to have thrown a coin to decide whose name would come first to designate the company. They also memorably performed the song "Mama Look a Boo Boo" together on NBC in 1957.
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A Hollywood star
He dreamed of playing Hamlet on stage as a child. In 1954, film director Otto Preminger picked Belafonte for his musical film "Carmen Jones." All actors in this adaptation of Bizet's opera "Carmen" were African-American. Belafonte became famous. Roughly 40 films were to follow. Among them was "Buck and the Preacher," where Belafonte (left) starred alongside his friend Sidney Poitier.
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A lovely family
Harry Belafonte married three times. Pictured here is his second wife, Julie, with their son David. When they married in 1957, interracial marriages were still unusual in the US, but that didn't stop the young couple. They stayed together for 50 years. One year after their divorce in 2007, Belafonte married for the third time. He had four children altogether.
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Best friends
Many artists to who rise to fame as early and rapidly as Belafonte often struggle to cope with their success, escaping the pressures of popularity with drug abuse. But Belafonte avoided this path by investing his energy in the Civil Rights Movement. The movement's figurehead, Martin Luther King, became his mentor and one of his closest friends.
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The March on Washington
Burt Lancaster, Harry Belafonte and Charlton Heston participated in the historical demonstration in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. More than 100,000 African-Americans also took part, demanding equal rights. That's where Martin Luther King gave his famous speech, "I Have a Dream." Beyond the Civil Rights Movement, Belafonte remained an activist for humanitarian causes throughout his life.
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Messenger of peace all over the world
One could count on Harry Belafonte's presence whenever hundreds of thousands of people came together to demonstrate for peace and human rights. In 1981, he came to Bonn to join what was then Germany's biggest demonstration for peace. That Saturday, more than 300,000 people assembled in Bonn's Hofgarten to protest against the nuclear threat.
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With Udo Lindenberg in former East Germany
In 1983, Belafonte and West German rock star Udo Lindenberg were invited to East Berlin for a concert hosted by the Free German Youth (FDJ). The slogan was "For peace in the world — against NATO's double-track decision." The East German secret police, the Stasi, was present during the press conference, listening carefully to what the artists had to say. But that did not frighten off Belafonte.
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USA for Africa
Belafonte was inspired by the British benefit project Band Aid, in which numerous pop stars participated to collect funds for famine relief in Africa. In 1985, together with Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, he launched the project United Support of Artists (USA) for Africa. A total of 45 US pop stars sang "We are the World" together, raising money for drought victims in Ethiopia.
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UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
Harry Belafonte was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1987. He traveled to crisis regions to document living conditions there for the media. In 1993, he visited Rwanda in support of the UNICEF project "Rwanda's Forgotten Children," which saved thousands of orphans from the 1994 genocide.
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Meeting Nelson Mandela
Harry Belafonte became a close friend of Nelson Mandela. For many years, Belafonte fought against the apartheid regime in South Africa, demanding the release of Mandela. In 1990, he was honored by the Nelson Mandela Award. The picture shows Belafonte with his second wife, Julie, during their visit to Nelson Mandela in 1999.
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Honorary Oscar
In 2014, Harry Belafonte was awarded an honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievement as an artist and social activist. "Perhaps we, as artists and visionaries, could influence people all over the world to see the better side of the human species," he said when he received the award. His old friend Sidney Poitier, who died in January 2022, was there on stage to congratulate him.
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A lifelong fight for justice
Belafonte was born in the New York district of Harlem to a sailor from the Caribbean island of Martinique and an unskilled worker from Jamaica. His father, who used to drink a lot, often beat his children — at times so badly that they ended up in the hospital. Finally, his father left the family, and his mother returned to the Caribbean with Harry and his siblings. Harry was given into the care of his grandmother with the following words: "Don't let a single day pass by without making use of opportunities to fight for justice."
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Some years later, Harry Belafonte returned to New York, where he attended high school and dreamed of a career on stage. That, however, was particularly challenging in 1950s US, where racial segregation was still practiced, and people of color were not welcome in the limelight. But Harry refused to let himself be put off by that. He continued to prove his talent as an entertainer until he finally got a job in a renowned jazz club.
Belafonte's steep career
Then things developed very quickly for Belafonte. After he got his first role in the movie The Bright Road in 1954, he made his breakthrough as an actor in "Carmen Jones" one year later. He followed that up with his first record contract. His song "Mathilda" was an instantaneous hit. His album "Calypso" was released in 1956 and sold more than a million copies — a huge and almost miraculous success, especially for a Black musician at that time.
From then on, Harry Belafonte was famous as the "King of Calypso." His single "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)" made him a musical icon at a young age.
Belafonte made use of his popularity to express his clear stance against racism and discrimination. In 1957, he shot the film "Island in the Sun," an interracial love story, which was controversial at the time. He also transgressed racial boundaries in real life by marrying a white woman.
Messenger for peace and justice
Harry Belafonte has always been more than just a good-looking singer with a soft voice who sold 150 million records and starred in numerous movies. Without worrying about the consequences it could have on his career, he continued to advocate human rights, struggling for minorities like African-Americans and Native Americans, as well as against apartheid in South Africa, the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons in the 1980s. Resulting from his continued commitment to the fight against poverty and hunger in the world, he was appointed as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 1987.
Many lifetime achievement awards followed, including the National Medal of the Arts in 1994.
In 2017, for his 90th birthday, Belafonte released "When Colors Come Together," an anthology of some of the singer's earlier recordings.
He also remained committed to political causes throughout his life, including as the honorary co-chair of the Women's March on Washington, a protest that took place the day after the Inauguration of Donald Trump as president in January 2017. Belafonte actively campaigned against Trump's reelection in 2020.
"In the past, we have turned the wheel in great bursts of energy and faith, and in between, when we stood exhausted and bloodied, there was some sliding back," the then 93-year-old activist wrote in a New York Times op-ed in November 2020. "That is always how it is in a democracy and a people's movement, but now is the time to move forward again."