Harry Belafonte, 96 last month, died today at his home on New York’s Upper West Side of heart failure. This was announced by the spokesman of the American singer and musician, quoted by the US media.
Belafonte, who in the 1950s had broken through the pop charts but also the barriers of race, becoming a force in the civil rights movement. Harold George Bellafanti Jr, this is Harry Belafonte’s real name, was born on March 1, 1927 in the Harlem neighborhood of New York to Jamaican parents. As a singer from the 1950s he brought to the fore Caribbean music inspired by calypso, a musical style originating in Trinidad and Tobago with songs such as Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) and Jamaica Farewell. His debut album, “Calypso”, which contained both, was the first by an artist to sell more than a million copies, confirming the enormous success recorded both in the US and in Europe. Engaged in civil rights battles and humanitarian activities, in 1987 he was appointed UNICEF ambassador.
