Henry Belafonte

Harold George Belafonte Jr. (commonly known has Harry Belafonte) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and social activist. He is best known for singing “The Banana Boat Song”. Throughout his career Henry Belafonte has been an supporter for civil rights and humanitarian origins. Harry Belafonte changed the world with his music, humanitarian activism and political activism. During the mid-1980s, Henry Belafonte’s participation in USA for Africa renewed his interest in his music. In 1988, he successively released his first album of original material in over a decade: Paradise in Gazankulu. The album consists of ten protest songs against the South African former Apartheid policy. In the same year Henry Belafonte appeared in a symposium in Harare, Zimbabwe to emphasize devotion on child survival and development in Southern African countries. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. In 1994, Henry Belafonte was also awarded the National Medal of Arts and in 2000, he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Due to illness, he was forced to cancel a reunion tour with Nana Mouskouri planned for the spring and summer of 2003 following a tour in Europe. On October 25, 2003, Henry Belafonte’s performed at his last concert which benefited the Atlanta Opera. During a 2007 interview, Henry Belafonte stated that he had since retired from performing. In 1985, Henry Belafonte helped organize the Grammy Award-Winning song "We Are the World": a multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa and in the same year he performed in the Live Aid concert. In 1987, he received an appointment to UNICEF as a Goodwill Ambassador. Following his appointment Henry Belafonte traveled to Dakar, Senegal where he served as chairman of the International Symposium of Artists and Intellectuals for African Children. He also helped to raise funds with the help of more than twenty other artists in the largest concert ever held in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1994, he went Rwanda and launched a