Harold George "
Harry"
Belafonte, Jr. (originally
Belafonete; born March 1, 1927) is an American musician, singer, actor, and
social activist. One of the most successful pop singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of
Calypso" -- a title which he was very reluctant to accept (according to the documentary
Calypso Dreams) -- for popularizing the
Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing the "
Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "
Day-O." Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for
civil rights and
humanitarian causes, and was a vocal critic of the policies of the
George W. Bush Administration.
Biography
Youth and early career
Born Harold George Belafonete, Jr., at Lying-in Hospital,
New York City,
New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (
née Love) -- a housekeeper (of Jamaican descent) -- and Harold George Belafonete, Sr., a
Martinican who worked as
chef in the
Royal Navy. From 1932 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in the village of Aboukir in her native country of
Jamaica. When he returned to
New York City he attended
George Washington High School after which he joined the
Navy and served during
World War II. His other smash hit being "
Jump in the Line".
Many of the compositions recorded for
Calypso, including "
Banana Boat Song" and "Jamaica Farewell," all signed by
Irving Burgie, Belafonte and his team were really previously recorded Jamaican mento songs sold as calypso. The original Jamaican versions can now be heard on the "Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958" CD released in 2010.
While primarily known for his Calypso songs, Belafonte has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. His second-best hit, which came immediately after "The Banana Boat Song," was the novelty tune "Mama Look at Bubu," also known as "Mama Look a Boo-Boo" (originally recorded by Lord Melody in 1956), in which he sings humorously about misbehaving and disrespectful children. It reached number eleven on the pop chart.
Belafonte continued to record for RCA through the 1950s to the 1970s. Two live albums, both recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1959 and 1960, enjoyed critical and commercial success. He was one of many entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Inaugural gala of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. That same year he released his second Calypso album, Jump Up Calypso, which went on to become another million seller. During the 1960s he introduced a number of artists to American audiences, most notably South African singer Miriam Makeba and Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. His album Midnight Special (1962) featured the first-ever recorded appearance by a then young harmonica player named Bob Dylan.
As The Beatles and other stars from Britain began to dominate the U.S. pop charts, Belafonte's impact as a commercial force diminished; 1964's Belafonte at The Greek Theatre was his last album to appear in Billboard's Top 40. His last hit single, A Strange Song, was released in 1967, and peaked at number 5 on the Adult contemporary music charts. Belafonte has received a Grammy Award for the albums Swing Dat Hammer (1960) and An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965). The latter album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid. He has been awarded six Gold Records.
Belafonte's album output in the 1970s slowed after leaving RCA. From the mid-1970s to early 1980s he spent the greater part of his time touring the world, visiting such places as Japan, Europe, and Cuba. His involvement in USA for Africa during the mid-1980s resulted in renewed interest in his music, culminating in a record deal with EMI. He subsequently released his first album of original material in over a decade, Paradise in Gazankulu, in 1988. The album contains ten protest songs against the South African former Apartheid policy, and is his last studio album to date. In the same year, Belafonte, as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador attended a symposium in Harare, Zimbabwe to focus world attention on child survival and development in Southern African countries. As part of the symposium, he performed a concert for UNICEF. A Kodak video crew filmed the concert, which was released as a 60-minute concert video entitled "Global Carnival". It features many of the songs from the album Paradise in Gazankulu and some of his classic hits. Also in 1988, Tim Burton used two of Belafonte's songs in his movie ''Beetlejuice, "The Banana Boat Song" and "Jump in the Line".
Following a lengthy recording hiatus, An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends, a soundtrack and video of a televised concert were released in 1997 by Island Records. The Long Road to Freedom, An Anthology of Black Music, a huge multi-artist project recorded during the 1960s and 1970s while he was still with RCA, was finally released by the label in 2001. The album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Awards for Best Boxed Recording Package, for Best Album Notes and for Best Historical Album. number on The Muppet Show.]]
Belafonte was the first black man to win an Emmy, with his first solo TV special Tonight with Belafonte (1959). During the 1960s he appeared in a number of TV specials, alongside such artists as Julie Andrews, Petula Clark, Lena Horne, and Nana Mouskouri. He was also a guest star on a memorable episode of The Muppet Show in 1978, in which he sang his signature song "Day-O" on television for the very first time. However, the episode is best known for Belafonte singing the spiritual song, "Turn the World Around," that is performed with Muppets designed like African tribal masks. It has become one of the most famous performances in the series. It was reported to be Jim Henson's favorite episode, and Belafonte did a reprise of the song at Henson's memorial in 1990. "Turn the World Around" was also included in the 2005 official hymnal supplement of the Unitarian Universalist Association, "Singing the Journey."
Belafonte received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994 and he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He has continued to perform sell-out concerts globally through the 1950s to the 2000s. Due to illness he was forced to cancel a reunion tour with Nana Mouskouri, planned for the spring and summer of 2003, following a tour in Europe. He gave his last concert on the 25th of October 2003, a benefit concert for the Atlanta Opera. In a 2007 interview he stated that he has since retired from performing.
Film career
Belafonte has starred in several films. His first major film role was in
Bright Road (1953), in which he appeared alongside
Dorothy Dandridge. The two subsequently starred in Otto Preminger's hit musical
Carmen Jones (1954). Ironically, Belafonte's lyrics in the film were dubbed by an opera singer, as Belafonte's own singing voice was seen as unsuitable for the role. Using his star clout, Belafonte was subsequently able to realize several then-controversial film roles. In 1957's
Island in the Sun, there are hints of an affair between Belafonte's character and Joan Fontaine. In 1959, he starred in and produced Robert Wise's
Odds Against Tomorrow, in which he plays a bank robber uncomfortably teamed with a racist partner (Robert Ryan). He also co-starred with Inger Stevens in
The World, the Flesh and the Devil. Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Otto Preminger's
Porgy and Bess, where he would have once again starred opposite Dandridge, but he refused the role because he objected to the racial stereotyping of blacks in the story.
Feeling dissatisfied with the film roles available to him, he abandoned film in favour of his musical career during the 1960s. In the early 1970s Belafonte briefly resurfaced in a number of films among which are two films in which he starred alongside Sidney Poitier: Buck and the Preacher (1972) and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). In 1984, Belafonte produced and scored the musical film Beat Street, dealing with the rise of hip-hop culture. Belafonte would not star in a major film again until the mid-1990s, when he appeared alongside John Travolta in the race-reverse drama White Man's Burden (1995); and in Robert Altman's jazz age drama Kansas City (1996), the latter of which garnered him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in the TV drama Swing Vote (1999). In late 2006, Belafonte appeared in the role of Nelson, a friend of an employee of the Ambassador Hotel played by Anthony Hopkins, in Bobby, Emilio Estevez's ensemble drama about the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
Political and humanitarian activism
Belafonte's political beliefs are greatly inspired by the man that he still views to this day as his mentor: singer and activist
Paul Robeson, a man who was in his time a controversial figure for strongly supporting the
Soviet Union throughout the
Cold War. He strongly opposed not only racial prejudice in the United States, but also western
colonialism in
Africa. Like Robeson and other black entertainers, Belafonte's success in the arts did not protect him from racial discrimination, particularly in the
American South. As a result, he refused to perform in the South from 1954 until 1961. In 1960, President
John F. Kennedy named Belafonte cultural advisor to the
Peace Corps. Belafonte was an early supporter of the
Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and one of
Martin Luther King Jr.'s confidants. He provided for King's family, since King made only $8,000 a year as a preacher. Like many civil rights activists, Belafonte was
blacklisted during the
McCarthy era. He bailed King out of the Birmingham City Jail and raised thousands of dollars to release other imprisoned civil rights protesters. He financed the Freedom Rides, supported voter registration drives, and helped to organize the
March on Washington in 1963.
with Sidney Poitier (left) and Charlton Heston. ]]
During "Freedom Summer" in 1964, Belafonte bankrolled the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, flying to Mississippi that August with $60,000 in cash and entertaining crowds in Greenwood with his "Banana Boat Song". In 1968, Belafonte appeared on a Petula Clark primetime television special on NBC. In the middle of a song, Clark smiled and briefly touched Belafonte's arm, which made the show's sponsor, Plymouth Motors, nervous. Plymouth wanted to cut out the segment, but Clark, who had ownership of the special, told NBC that the performance would be shown intact or she would not allow the special to be aired at all. American newspapers published articles reporting the controversy and, when the special aired, it grabbed high viewing figures. Belafonte appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and performed a controversial "Mardi Gras" number with footage intercut from the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. CBS censors deleted the entire segment from the program.
In 1985, he was one of the organizers behind the Grammy Award winning song "We Are the World", a multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa, and performed in the Live Aid concert that same year. In 1987, he received an appointment to UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador. Following his appointment, Belafonte traveled to Dakar, Senegal, where he served as chairman of the International Symposium of Artists and Intellectuals for African Children. He also helped to raise funds – alongside more than 20 other artists – in the largest concert ever held in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1994 he went on a mission to Rwanda and launched a media campaign to raise awareness of the needs of Rwandan children.
In 2001 he went to South Africa to support the campaign against HIV/AIDS. In 2002, Africare awarded him the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for his efforts to assist Africa. In 2004 Belafonte went to Kenya to stress the importance of educating children in the region. Belafonte has been involved in prostate cancer advocacy since 1996, when he was diagnosed and successfully treated for the disease. On June 27, 2006, Belafonte was the recipient of the BET Humanitarian Award at the 2006 BET Awards. He was named one of nine 2006 Impact Award recipients by AARP The Magazine. Belafonte has been a longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy. He began making controversial political statements on this subject in the early 1980s. He has, at various times, made statements opposing the U.S. embargo on Cuba; praising Soviet peace initiatives; attacking the U.S. invasion of Grenada; praising the Abraham Lincoln Brigade; honoring Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and praising Fidel Castro. Belafonte is additionally known for his visit to Cuba which helped ensure hip-hop’s place in Cuban society. According to Geoffrey Baker’s article “Hip hop, Revolucion! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba,” in 1999, Belafonte met with representatives of the rap community immediately before meeting with Fidel Castro. This meeting resulted in Castro’s personal approval of (and hence the government’s involvement in), the incorporation of rap into his country’s culture. In a 2003 interview, Belafonte reflected upon this meeting’s influence:
“When I went back to Havana a couple years later, the people in the hip-hop community came to see me and we hung out for a bit. They thanked me profusely and I said, why? and they said, because, your little conversation with Fidel and the Minister of Culture on hip-hop led to there being a special division within the ministry and we've got our own studio.”
Belafonte was involved in the anti-Apartheid movement. He was the Master of Ceremonies at a reception honoring African National Congress President Oliver Tambo at Roosevelt House, Hunter College, in New York City. The reception was held by the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) and The Africa Fund. In December 2007 he endorsed John Edwards for the 2008 Presidential Election. At the ACLU of Northern California's annual Bill of Rights Day Celebration In December 2007, Belafonte gave the keynote address and was awarded the Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. On October 19, 2007, Belafonte represented UNICEF on Norwegian television to support the annual telethon (TV Aksjonen) in support of that charity and helped raise a world record of $10 per inhabitant of Norway. Belafonte was also an ambassador for the Bahamas. He is on the board of directors of the Advancement Project.
The 2011 Sundance Film Festival will feature the documentary film "Sing Your Song", a biographical film focusing on Belafonte's contribution to and his leadership in the civil rights movement in America and his endeavours to promote social justice globally.
Opposition to the George W. Bush Administration
Belafonte achieved widespread attention for his political views in 2002 when he began making a series of comments about President
George W. Bush, his administration and the
Iraq War. During an interview with
Ted Leitner for
San Diego's 760 KFMB, in October 2002, Belafonte referred to a quote made by
Malcolm X. Belafonte said:
Belafonte used the quote to characterize former United States Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both African-Americans. Powell and Rice both responded, with Powell calling the remarks "unfortunate" and Rice saying "I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black."
The comment was brought up again in an interview with Amy Goodman for Democracy Now! in 2006. In January 2006, Belafonte led a delegation of activists including actor Danny Glover and activist/professor Cornel West to meet with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez. In 2005, Chávez, an outspoken Bush critic, initiated a program to provide cheaper heating fuel for poor people in several areas of the United States. Belafonte supported this initiative. During the meeting with Chávez, Belafonte was quoted as saying, "No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people... support your revolution." Belafonte and Glover met again with Chávez in 2006. The comment ignited a great deal of controversy. Hillary Clinton refused to acknowledge Belafonte's presence at an awards ceremony that featured both of them. AARP, which had just named him one of its 10 Impact Award honorees 2006, released this statement following the remarks: "AARP does not condone the manner and tone which he has chosen and finds his comments completely unacceptable." During a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech at Duke University in 2006, Belafonte compared the American government to the 9/11 hijackers, saying, "What is the difference between that terrorist and other terrorists?" In response to criticism about his remarks, Belafonte asked, "What do you call Bush when the war he put us in to date has killed almost as many Americans as died on 9/11 and the number of Americans wounded in war is almost triple? [...] By most definitions Bush can be considered a terrorist." When he was asked about his expectation of criticism for his remarks on the war in Iraq, Belafonte responded: "Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy."
In another interview, Belafonte remarked that while his comments may have been "hasty", nevertheless he felt the Bush administration suffered from "arrogance wedded to ignorance," and its policies around the world were "morally bankrupt". In January 2006, in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference, Belafonte referred to "the new Gestapo of Homeland Security" saying, "You can be arrested and have no right to counsel!" During the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech at the Duke University in January 2006, Belafonte said that if he could choose his epitaph, it would be, "Harry Belafonte, Patriot."
Family
Belafonte and Marguerite Byrd were married from 1948 to 1957. They have two daughters: Adrienne and Shari.
Shari Belafonte, married to
Sam Behrens, is a
photographer,
model,
singer and
actor. In 1997, Adrienne Biesemeyer and her daughter Rachel Blue founded the Anir Foundation/Experience. Anir focuses on humanitarian work in southern Africa.
On March 8, 1957, Belafonte married his second wife, Julie Robinson (former dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company). They have two children, David and Gina Belafonte. David Belafonte (a former model) is an Emmy-winning producer and the executive director of the family-held company Belafonte Enterprises Inc. A music producer, he has been involved in most of Belafonte's albums and tours. He is married to Danish model and singer Malena Belafonte, born Mathiesen, who won silver in Dancing with the Stars in Denmark in 2009. Gina is a TV and film actress and has worked with her father as coach and producer in more than six films. Gina is one of the founding members of The Gathering For Justice, an inter-generational, intercultural non-profit organization working to reintroduce nonviolence to stop child incarceration. She is married to actor Scott McCray.
In April 2008, Belafonte married his third wife, Pamela Frank.
Belafonte lived in a 16-room apartment at 300 West End Avenue (corner of 74th Street) in New York City for 50 years. He moved out in 2007, and sold his entire-fifth-floor apartment to Abigail Disney. She in turn sold it to two separate buyers in 2009, and it is being remodeled into two separate apartments.
In October 1998, Belafonte contributed a letter to Liv Ullmann's book Letter to My Grandchild.
Discography
Filmography
Bright Road (1953)
Carmen Jones (1954)
Island in the Sun (1957)
The Heart of Show Business (1957) (short subject)
The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) (documentary) (narrator)
The Angel Levine (1970)
Buck and the Preacher (1972)
Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
A veces miro mi vida (1982)
Drei Lieder (1983) (short subject)
Sag nein (1983) (documentary)
Der Schönste Traum (1984) (documentary)
We Shall Overcome (1989) (documentary) (narrator)
The Player (1992) (Cameo)
Ready to Wear (1994) (Cameo)
Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream (1995)
White Man's Burden (1995)
Jazz '34 (1996)
Kansas City (1996)
Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1998) (documentary)
Fidel (2001) (documentary)
XXI Century (2003) (documentary)
Conakry Kas (2003) (documentary)
Ladders (2004) (documentary) (narrator)
Mo & Me (2006) (documentary)
Bobby (2006)
Motherland (2009) (documentary)
Sing Your Song (2011) (documentary)
Television work
Sugar Hill Times (1949–1950)
Tonight With Belafonte (1959)
Petula (1968)
A World in Music (1969)
''Harry & Lena, For The Love Of Life (1969)
A World in Love (1970)
Free to Be… You and Me (1974)
The Muppet Show (1978)
Grambling's White Tiger (1981)
Don't Stop The Carnival (1985)
An Evening With Harry Belafonte And Friends (1997)
Swing Vote (1999)
Tanner on Tanner (2004)
That's What I'm Talking About (2006) (miniseries)
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) (miniseries)
Concert videos
Don't Stop The Carnival (1985)
Global Carnival (1988)
An Evening With Harry Belafonte And Friends (1997)
Stage work
John Murray Anderson's Almanac (December 10, 1953 - June 26, 1954)
3 for Tonight (April 6 - June 18, 1955)
Moonbirds (October 9–10, 1959) (producer)
Belafonte at the Palace (December 15, 1959 - closing date unknown)
Asinamali! (April 23 - May 17, 1987) (producer)
Quotation
References
External links
Harry Belafonte - a site of sites
Harry Belafonte discography
English version of the text found at the bottom of the page.
2004 Global Exchange Human Rights Award - Belafonte's acceptance speech in San Francisco
Ubben Lecture at DePauw University
Democracy Now! transcript/MP3/video of interview by Amy Goodman, January 30, 2006
The Bigotry of Belafonte - by Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, Oct. 25, 2002
"The Man Behind Belafonte's Music - Irving Burgie" - by Ronald David Jackson, with video
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
The HistoryMakers Biography and video clips
Harry Belafonte Appreciation Group on Imeem
Harry Belafonte: Belafonte At Carnegie Hall
Belafonte and Nat King Cole sing "Mama Look at Bubu"
Belafonte: "Iraq & Afghanistan Wars Are Immoral" - video report by Democracy Now!
Category:American anti-war activists
Category:American folk singers
Category:American male singers
Category:American socialists
Category:International activists against apartheid in South Africa
Category:Calypsonians
Category:Emmy Award winners
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Category:American musicians of Jamaican descent
Category:World music musicians
Category:Jubilee Records artists
Category:RCA Victor artists
Category:Kennedy Center honorees
Category:New York Democrats
Category:People from Manhattan
Category:Tony Award winners
Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Category:1927 births
Category:Living people
![Island in the Sun Trailer [1957]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110507193436im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hCEwmKNiBzs/0.jpg "Island in the Sun Trailer [1957]")
