Harry Belafonte, American singer and civil rights activist, has died at the age of 96

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: John MACDOUGALL / AFP 16:21 p.m., April 25, 2023

A haunting voice and charming physique, Harry Belafonte, nicknamed "the king of calypso", rose to fame in the 1950s and marked his time with his humanitarian convictions and his fight for civil rights in the United States. The iconic singer died Tuesday at the age of 96, several US media reported. Born in Harlem on March 1, 1927 to a Jamaican mother and a Martinican father, the singer has been the voice of these rhythms with Matilda, Day-O, Island in the Sun, Jamaica Farewell, Try to Remember or Coconut Woman.

It was as a child, while living in Jamaica, that George "Harry" Belafonte discovered calypso, a music with West African influences born in the carnivals of Trinidad and Tobago, which will seduce the American public with its exoticism. Back in the United States, he entered the Black Theater of Harlem after the war and staged several plays with his lifelong friend Sidney Poitier, before embarking on music where his charisma and vocal qualities reserve him a quick success, which will be the springboard of his commitment against racial segregation.

Initially a singer of ballads in cabarets, he established himself in the early 1950s with a popular repertoire that mixed the influences of American variety, Caribbean music and black Harlem culture.

A triumph with the album "Calypso" in 1956

In 1955, he triumphed with the title Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) and the album Calypso (1956) became the first in history to sell more than a million copies. He filled the halls and his recordings, including six Gold Records, were a worldwide success and earned him several Grammy Awards in 1960.

At the same time, Belafonte played in Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones (1954), Robert Wise's Kansas City (1959), Robert Altman's Kansas City (1996), Buck and His Accomplice, by and with Sidney Poitier (1972) and Bobby (Emilio Estevez, 2006) on the assassination of Bob Kennedy. He became the first black actor to play, in 1957, a love affair with a white actress in Robert Rossen's An Island in the Sun, and also the first African-American to produce a television show and win an Emmy Award (1959).

Close to Martin Luther King

But the young man is not content to be a symbol. He quickly funded the civil rights campaign and became close to Martin Luther King Jr. "When people think of activism, they always think it involves sacrifice, but I've always seen it as a privilege and an opportunity," he said in a 2004 speech at Emory University. In 1963, he raised $50,000, the equivalent of almost $500,000 today, to get Martin Luther King out of prison, at a time when artists were earning comfortable incomes.

"I could have made $2 billion or $3 billion and ended up with some kind of cruel addiction, but I chose to be a civil rights fighter instead," he said in a 2007 interview with the Guardian. Distrustful of politicians, he had met John Kennedy in 1960, inviting the then presidential candidate to his home. He was initially unconvinced by the senator seeking support, later reporting that Kennedy "knew very little about the black community."

The main promoter of "We are the World"

But once elected, "JFK" appointed him cultural attaché of the Peace Corps. Later, in 1987, he was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He spent time in Africa, including Kenya, and campaigned against apartheid in South Africa. In 1988, he dedicated his last album Paradise in Gazankulu to this cause. He is the main promoter of We are the World sung in 1985 by 45 American artists raising funds to fight famine in Ethiopia.

After opposing the war in Iraq, in 2006 he accused President George W. Bush of being a "terrorist", no better, according to him, than Osama bin Laden. He also takes controversial positions, getting angry with the heirs of Martin Luther King who criticize his admiration for the Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, or reproaching in 2012 the wealthy black couple Jay Z and Beyoncé for having "turned their backs on social responsibilities".

The dyslexic artist, who did not bet on success after dropping out of high school, serving in the army or working as a janitor, was covered at the end of his life with prestigious awards. Thus, in 2014, the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar because "from the beginning of his career he chose projects highlighting racism and inequalities". Married three times, Harry Belafonte had three daughters and a son by his first two wives.