Harry Belafonte was a Jamaican-American singer, actor, and campaigner who popularised calypso music among international audiences in the 1950s. Calypso (1956), his breakthrough album, was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.
Sadly, Belafonte died of congestive heart failure on April 25, 2023, at the age of 96, at home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Belafonte’s net worth was estimated to be $30 million at the time of his death in April 2023.
Belafonte began his musical career as a club singer in New York to help pay for his acting lessons. His debut appearance in front of an audience was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and Miles Davis, among others.
In 1949, he began his recording career as a pop vocalist on the Roost label, but he rapidly developed an interest in folk music, memorizing material from the Library of Congress’s American folk song archives.
Belafonte made his debut at the famed jazz club The Village Vanguard with guitarist and buddy Millard Thomas. He secured a contract with RCA Victor in 1953 and continued to record for the label until 1974. Belafonte also performed at the Rat Pack era in Las Vegas.
“Matilda”, Belafonte’s first widely released single, went on to become his “signature” audience involvement song in practically all of his live appearances, was recorded on April 27, 1953. Calypso (1956), his breakthrough album, became the world’s first LP to sell over one million copies in a year. He claimed that it was England’s first million-selling album. The album is ranked fourth on Billboard’s “Top 100 Album” list, having spent 31 weeks at number one, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks in the US chart.
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