- Fela Kuti will receive a Special Merit Award at the 2026 Grammy Awards.
- The honour will be presented a day before the main Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles.
- Fans and artists worldwide say the recognition is long overdue.
- The award marks a rare moment of reconciliation between Fela and the global Industry
The Recording Academy has announced that Nigerian music legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, widely known as the King of Afrobeat, will be honoured at the 2026 Grammy Awards, a historic move that symbolises a long-awaited recognition of his revolutionary impact on global music and culture.
According to the Recording Academy, Fela Kuti will receive a Special Merit Award at a private ceremony scheduled for Saturday, January 31, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, one day before the 68th Grammy Awards.
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The announcement has sparked excitement across Nigeria and beyond, with musicians, critics, and fans describing the honour as long overdue for an artist whose music reshaped African sound and challenged political oppression.
In a statement, the Recording Academy said Fela’s work continues to resonate decades after his death.
“Fela’s influence and catalog of music have been widely celebrated and explored,” the Academy said.
They highlighted recent global projects that have kept his legacy alive, including the acclaimed podcast Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, named The New Yorker’s No. 1 Podcast of 2025, as well as the Broadway production Fela! The Musical, which ran from 2008 to 2010 and won a Tony Award.
The Academy also noted that Fela’s influence cuts across generations and genres, inspiring global stars such as Beyoncé, Paul McCartney, and Thom Yorke, while laying the foundation for what is now known as modern Nigerian Afrobeats.
Beyond music, Fela was remembered as a fearless political voice whose activism brought him into repeated clashes with Nigeria’s military governments.
“A titanic sociopolitical voice, Afrobeat’s revolutionary politics brought Fela into violent conflict with successive Nigerian military regimes,” the Academy stated.
They recalled how authorities once sent soldiers to destroy Kalakuta Republic, his communal home, in a bid to silence him, an act that only strengthened his reputation as a symbol of resistance.
For many, the Grammy recognition represents a rare moment where the global music establishment finally acknowledges an artist who openly rejected and criticised it during his lifetime.