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Harry Belafonte

Person · Male

Harry Belafonte

From
Harlem, United States
Active
1927–2023
Rating
★ 5 (1 votes)
Releases
225
  • calypso
  • pop
  • contemporary folk
  • folk
  • mento
  • traditional pop
  • folk pop
  • jazz

About

Harry Belafonte ( BEL-ə-FON-tee; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte's career breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.

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Belafonte was best known for his recordings of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)", "Jamaica Farewell", and "Mary's Boy Child". He recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He also starred in films such as Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Buck and the Preacher (1972), and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). He made his final feature film appearance in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman (2018).
Harry Belafonte considered the actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson to be a mentor. Belafonte was also a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and acted as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues. He was also a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush and first Donald Trump administrations.
Belafonte won three Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. 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 and in 2022 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), although he won the Oscar in a non-competitive category.

From Harry Belafonte on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Discography

Albums 35
EPs 4
Singles 28
Live 11
Compilations 147

Showing 60 of 147. See them all on MusicBrainz

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Also known as

Belafonte · Belafonte Harry · Harold George Belafonte, Jr. · Harry Belefonte · Harry Belfonte · Harry Bellafonte · Harry Thomas · Henry Belafonte · Raymond Bell · Stephen Somvel · ハリー・ベラフォンテ

Tags

  • world

Identifiers

ISNI
0000000114676536
IPI
00002539123
IPI
00114676536

Data from MusicBrainz, saved 7 Nov 2026. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, covers from the Cover Art Archive and Apple Music.