American folk singer Harry Belafonte has died of a congestive heart failure at the age of 96, his spokesperson Ken Sunshine confirmed on Tuesday.
The civil rights icon was pronounced dead at his home in the upper west side of Manhattan.
Belafonte had an album with the late South African icon Miriam Makeba. Together they won a Grammy for the 1966 album An Evening With Belafonte And Makeba that featured songs such as Train Song, My Angel, Khawuyani-Khanyange, Chove-Chuva and Goin’ Down Jordan.
Belafonte was a barrier-breaker singer and actor best known for The Banana Boat Song and Jump The Line.
His album Calypso reached the top of the Billboard album chart shortly after its release in 1956, and stayed there for 31 weeks.
Coming just before the breakthrough of Elvis Presley, it was said to be the first album by a single artist to sell more than a million copies.
Belafonte stormed the pop charts and smashed racial barriers in the 1950s with his highly personal brand of folk music, and went on to become a major force in the civil rights movement.
Early in his career, he befriended the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr and became not just a lifelong friend but also one of his most passionate supporters and the quest for racial equality he personified.
Belafonte quietly maintained an insurance policy on King’s life, with his family as the beneficiary, and donated his own money to make sure the family was taken care of after King was assassinated in 1968.
Since the announcement of Belafonte’s death, his fans have been commenting on an old post on his Instagram account and sending condolences.
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