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EXPLAINED: Afrobeat | Rare Historical Photos

Brass bands have featured in World Beat many times over the years, most recently The Klezmer Brass Allstars created by Frank London (of The Klezmatics band).

Bangkok Post

Afrobeats legend Fela Kuti to become first African to get Lifetime Achievement Award at Grammys

The award comes nearly 30 years after Fela Kuti's death, and two years after the Grammys introduced the Best African Performance category.

Euronews

‘You can’t drink Fanta. You have to smoke marijuana’: Fela Kuti’s artist recalls their wild collaborations

When the Afrobeat sensation first saw Lemi Ghariokwu’s work, he said, ‘Wow!’ Then he plied him with marijuana and asked him to design his album sleeves. The artist recalls their extraordinary partnership – and the day Kuti’s Lagos HQ burned

The Guardian - UK

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Fela and food: how Lagos restaurants are serving up the music star’s legacy

In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial and creative capital, food is doing something unusual. It’s keeping alive the spirit of a musician.

The Conversation

Damon Albarn says Oasis won the war, but here’s 10 songs that prove the Battle Of Britpop sent the Blur man in a more daring direction and changed the course of his career

From Gorillaz to Africa Express to ambient experimentalism and punk-meets-Afrobeat supergroups, the Blur singer has done it all.

Louder

“What they do harkens back to classic rock and real musicianship”: Amadou Bagayoko, singer and Malian guitar great, dies at 70

Half of the enormously successful duo Amadou & Mariam, Bagayoko developed a powerful guitar style that blended classic rock influences with more traditional West African sounds, jammed with David Gilmour, and collaborated with Damon Albarn

Guitar World

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80: Heavier Yet (Lays the Crownless Head) review – Fela’s legacy lives on

Executive producer Lenny Kravitz brings gloss to Kuti’s first album in six years, which keeps his father’s Afrobeat flame burning, with a funk twist

The Guardian - UK

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From Fela Kuti to Jimi Hendrix and The Grateful Dead – the story of music manager Rikki Stein

Rikki Stein, born into a regular, middle-class home in the UK, has had what must have seemed an unlikely career. As a music manager he has toured the world in the company of music legends – from the late Nigerian Afrobeat star Fela Kuti to American rockers The Grateful Dead…

The Conversation

Foals’ Yannis Philippakis: ‘I don’t see myself as being tethered to the band’

The frontman is finally releasing his years-in-the-making collaborative album with the late, great Afrobeats legend Tony Allen. Over a pint, he opens up to Mark Beaumont about the lessons he learnt from the music legend, the future of Foals, and why he feels hopeful about the UK’s future

The Independent UK

Fela Kuti is more famous today than ever – what’s behind his global power

Almost three decades after his passing in 1997, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the legendary Nigerian musician and activist who created the Afrobeat music movement, remains the subject of global obsession.

The Conversation

‘Bass on one shoulder, bow and arrows on the other’: life with Fela Kuti on history’s most dangerous tour

In 1979, my father Roy Ayers went on an extraordinary three-week tour with the Afrobeat pioneer amid extreme violence in Nigeria. Three band members recount the unforgettable trip

The Guardian - UK

Womad review – more music festivals need this vitality, daring and breadth

Quirky, brilliant and politically forthright acts from over 40 countries, among them Femi Kuti, Susana Baca, Souad Massi and 47Soul, grace the festival’s 41st edition

The Guardian - UK

Afrobeats in 2022: global mobility, election songs, placemaking albums – and Tems

More than Nollywood films, Afrobeats is arguably Nigeria’s strongest cultural export since the turn of the millennium. It is a hugely dynamic music category that incorporates a range of moods, languages, styles, and existing genres. To understand its impact, a cultural connoisseur has equated good Afrobeats music with well-made, smoky…

The Conversation

Setting the record straight: Burna Boy didn't create a music genre called Afrofusion

Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu was born in 1991 in Port Harcourt, the largest city in Rivers State in Nigeria. He would become known as Burna Boy, a singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to stardom in 2012 after releasing Like to Party, the lead single from L.I.F.E., his debut studio…

The Conversation

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The Conversation

The legacy of Nigerian music star Orlando Julius must not be overlooked

If there is one musician as commonly associated as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti with the West African musical movements Afrobeat and Afrobeats (never mind Afro-Blues and Afro-Soul), this is the preserve of Orlando Julius Ekemode. Given Fela’s immense stature it would seem impossible to speak of another musician from whom he gained…

The Conversation

From Nigeria to the world: Afrobeats is having a global moment

Another Grammy Awards season and there is a growing list of African nominees. For African music enthusiasts, it is heartwarming that recognition is being accorded to practitioners in the Afrobeats space.

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