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The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has praised the late singer, actor and civil rights activist, Harry Belafonte as a “voice, face and inspiration for black people everywhere.”

Minister Grange was responding to news of the passing of Harry Belafonte today in New York at the age of 96.

She said he was an “important promoter of our folk music—bringing ‘Day-O’, ‘Jamaica Farewell’ and other songs to America and elsewhere.”

Belafonte ignited a craze for Caribbean music in the United States where his album ‘Calypso’ which featured ‘Day-O’ and ‘Jamaica Farewell’ topped the Billboard chart shortly after release in 1956 and remained at the top for 31 weeks. ‘Calypso’ was said to be the first album by a single artist to sell more than a million copies.

Minister Grange said Belafonte used “folk music to become the biggest star in music at one point.” During his career, he won two Grammy Awards and was credited with helping to organise the USA for Africa project out of which came the all-star recording ‘We Are the World’ in 1985 that raised money to fight famine in Africa.

For outstanding contribution in the field of music, the Government of Jamaica awarded him the nation’s fourth highest award, the Order of Merit in 2018.

He also became one of the first black actors to achieve success in Hollywood as a leading man.

Belafonte (whose original name was Bellanfanti before his father changed the family name) was born in New York in 1927. His mother, Melvine, was born in Jamaica. She moved back to Jamaica in 1936 with Harry and his younger brother, but went back to America soon afterwards leaving the boys to be looked after by relatives and to immerse in the Jamaican culture. They rejoined her in New York in 1940.

Belafonte went on to study black history at the urging of his shipmates in the US Navy and worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement.

Minister Grange has offered condolences to his widow Pamela, children, grandchildren and friends.

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