Harry Belafonte: The King of Calypso

Harry Belafonte (March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist. He popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s, and his 1956 album Calypso became the first million-selling LP by a single artist.

Early Life and Education

Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. on March 1, 1927, at Lying-in Hospital in Harlem, New York City. His father, Harold George Bellanfanti Sr., worked as a chef, and his mother, Melvine Love, was a housekeeper; both were Jamaican-born. He had a younger brother named Dennis. His mother descended from a Scottish Jamaican mother and an Afro-Jamaican father, while his father was the child of an Afro-Jamaican mother and a Dutch-Jewish father of Sephardic descent.

From 1932 to 1940, Belafonte lived in Jamaica with one of his grandmothers and attended Wolmer’s Schools. After returning to New York City, he attended George Washington High School briefly before dropping out; undiagnosed dyslexia and blindness in one eye contributed to his academic struggles. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. In the 1940s, while working as a janitor’s assistant, he received two theater tickets as a gratuity and discovered his passion for performance. He befriended Sidney Poitier, and the two shared a single seat to local plays, trading places between acts. At the end of the 1940s, Belafonte studied acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City under German director Erwin Piscator, where he trained alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, and Bea Arthur.

Career and Achievements

Belafonte began his career as a club singer in New York to fund his acting studies. His first public performance was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Max Roach and Miles Davis. He launched his recording career as a pop singer on the Roost label in 1949 and developed an interest in folk music, studying material from the Library of Congress’ American folk songs archives. In 1953, he signed with RCA Victor, recording exclusively for the label until 1974.

His breakthrough came with the film Carmen Jones (1954) and the album Calypso (1956), which introduced American audiences to calypso music originating from Trinidad and Tobago. The album spent 31 weeks at No. 1, 58 weeks in the Top Ten, and 99 weeks on the U.S. chart, earning Belafonte the title “King of Calypso.” He recorded and performed across multiple genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. His film roles included Island in the Sun (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Buck and the Preacher (1972), Uptown Saturday Night (1974), and his final feature film appearance in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (2018).

Notable Events and Milestones

Belafonte’s signature song “Matilda” was recorded on April 27, 1953, and became his standard audience participation piece in live performances. Between 1953 and 1954, he performed in the Broadway musical revue John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, where he sang and wrote “Mark Twain.” His 1956 album Calypso became the first LP in the world to sell more than one million copies in a year, a historic milestone for the recording industry. The album featured “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” which reached No. 5 on the pop chart, along with other enduring hits including “Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora),” “Jamaica Farewell,” and “Mary’s Boy Child.”

Throughout the civil rights era, Belafonte was a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. and considered actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson a mentor. He served as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues and later became a vocal critic of the George W. Bush and first Donald Trump administrations.

Awards and Honors

Belafonte won three Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award for his participation in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac (1954). In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy’s 6th Annual Governors Awards. In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category. He is one of the few performers to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT), though his Oscar was awarded in a non-competitive category.

Additional Resources

For more detailed information about Harry Belafonte’s life, career, and cultural impact, readers can consult Wikipedia and other biographical archives that document his contributions to music, film, and civil rights activism.

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