Fela becomes first African musician to get Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

By Isa Isawade

The late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, has become the first African musician ever awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The announcement on Saturday 19 December 2025 has put the late freedom fighter in the club of legends like The Beatles, Johnny Cash, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hedrix, Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra — all recognized for making “creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.”

The music legend will be posthumously honoured with the award alongside the likes of Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, among others in 2026.

Fela, a pioneer of the Afrobeat genre, was never nominated for a Grammy during his lifetime but his sons Femi and Seun, and grandson Made, have received eight nominations collectively.

Npr.come described Fela’s sound as “massive.” It added that “His band often swelled to more than 30 members (including backup singers and dancers) and featured two bass guitars and two baritone saxophones. He himself played saxophone, keyboards, guitar, drums and trumpet (his first instrument as a child). His emphasis on complex polyrhythms and the inclusion of traditional African instruments like the talking drum were revolutionary at the time — a rebellion against the dominance of Western pop and a marked effort to forge a post-colonial African identity.

“From the start of his career, Fela aimed to reach a larger and Pan-African audience by singing almost exclusively in Nigerian Pidgin English (rather than his mother tongue, Yoruba, which doesn’t translate throughout most of the continent).

“He did not play by the rules of the music biz. He expressed disdain for party tunes and love songs. He’d release as many as seven albums in a single year. And he refused to perform songs live once they’d been recorded.

“His music broke new ground with songs that could stretch to 45 minutes. One of his most famous albums, Confusion, was composed of a lone tune broken into two sides, Confusion Pt. I and Confusion Pt. II — the first half entirely instrumental.”

Fela, who was a thorn on the flesh of corrupt leaders and military dictatorship in Nigeria, died on August 2,1997 following complications arising from AIDS. His musical albums, considered revolutionary, have remained evergreen reverberating across the world.