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.
The Recording Academy announced that the “King of Afrobeat” will be honoured at the 2026 Grammy Awards, marking a symbolic reconciliation between Fela’s revolutionary music and the global music establishment he fiercely 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 main 68th Grammy Awards ceremony.
The announcement has been met with celebration across Nigeria and the international music community, with fans and artists alike hailing the recognition as long overdue for one of Africa’s most influential cultural figures.
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
