Legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is set to make history as the first African artist to receive a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, nearly three decades after his death.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Recording Academy announced that the “King of Afrobeat” will be honoured at the 2026 Grammy Awards, describing the recognition as a symbolic reconciliation between Fela’s revolutionary music and the global music establishment he openly criticised during his lifetime.
The award will be presented at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony on Saturday, January 31, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, a day before the 68th Grammy Awards ceremony.
The announcement has sparked widespread celebration in Nigeria and across the global music community, with fans and artists hailing the honour as long overdue for one of Africa’s most influential cultural icons.
In a statement, the Recording Academy said:
“Fela’s influence and catalog of music have been widely celebrated and explored, including the podcast series Fela Kuti: Fear No Man (the New Yorker’s No. 1 Podcast of 2025) and the Tony Award-winning Broadway run of Fela! The Musical from 2008 to 2010.
“Fela’s influence spans generations, inspiring artists such as Beyoncé, Paul McCartney and Thom Yorke, and shaping modern Nigerian Afrobeats.
“A titanic sociopolitical voice, Afrobeat’s revolutionary politics brought Fela into violent conflict with successive Nigerian military regimes, which made many attempts to suppress him and once sent in the army to burn down his communal home, Kalakuta Republic.”
Reacting to the announcement, Fela’s son, Seun Kuti, described the honour as a victory for Afrobeat and politically conscious music, though he revealed he would be unable to attend the ceremony in person due to travel restrictions.
“We are all proud as a family. It is just a shame that I can’t be there physically to join my family to accept the honour because of travel restrictions,” Seun said.
“Trump has banned me because of talks of Christian genocide. Nevertheless, the family is proud. It’s a good day for African music, Afrobeat culture, and resistance music.”
The award will be received by Fela’s children, Yeni, Femi and Kunle Kuti, who continue to preserve his legacy through the New Afrika Shrine and other cultural platforms linked to the former Kalakuta Republic.
Seun Kuti, who recently made headlines following a public exchange with fellow Nigerian star Wizkid, used the moment to call for unity within the music industry.
“The term ‘greatest’ has a lot to do with comparison. My point has always been: don’t compare. Our artists and culture should breed cooperation, not pitch people against each other. Fela is great, and that is the truth,” he said.
Fela, who died in 1997 at the age of 58, is being honoured for creating Afrobeat — a genre that fused West African highlife, jazz, funk and traditional rhythms — and for using his music as a weapon against military dictatorship, corruption and social injustice.
The Recording Academy said his “inestimable contributions” laid the foundation for the modern Afrobeats movement now dominating global charts.
Fela joins a distinguished list of 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, including Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Chaka Khan, Cher and Paul Simon.
The honour follows the 2025 induction of his 1976 album Zombie into the Grammy Hall of Fame, further cementing his enduring legacy. A special live band tribute is also scheduled in Los Angeles during Grammy weekend.
