Afrobeat pioneer, and Trinity College of Music (now Trinity Laban) alum Fela Anikulapo-Kuti has been posthumously honoured with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Special Merit Awards, becoming the first African artist to receive this prestigious recognition from the Recording Academy.
The Nigerian musician, who died in 1997, posthumously received the commendation along with several other artists at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday, on the eve of the 68th Annual Grammy Awards.
In 1958, Fela went to London to study medicine, but instead enrolled at Trinity College of Music, where he formed a band that played a blend of jazz and highlife. After returning to Nigeria in the 1960s, he went on to create the Afrobeat genre that fused highlife and Yoruba music with American jazz, funk, and soul. “Fela’s influence spans generations, inspiring artists such as Beyonce, Paul McCartney and Thom Yorke, and shaping modern Nigerian Afrobeats,” reads the citation on the Grammy’s list of this year’s Special Merit Award Honorees.
The award was accepted on his behalf by his children Yeni, Kunle, Shalewa and Femi Kuti. Speaking at the ceremony, Yeni Kuti expressed gratitude to the Recording Academy, saying that she was certain their father would be “smiling down on us.” She also acknowledged her siblings who were unable to attend, Motunrayo and Seun, and praised her nephew Made Kuti – who is also a Trinity Laban alum – for taking Afrobeat to new heights. “I’m sure my father is smiling down on us. I want to acknowledge my siblings who couldn’t be here tonight, Motunrayo and Seun, and my nephew who is carrying Afrobeat to another level, Made.”
Yeni also admitted “we still have a way to go” in fairly recognising musicians and artists from across the African continent. “The family is happy about it. And we’re excited that he’s finally being recognised,” she told Al Jazeera before the ceremony “but Fela was never nominated [for a Grammy] in his lifetime.”
You can find out more about Fela Kuti’s legacy in the podcast series Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, which features interviews with members of the Trinity Laban community.