The Recording Academy has announced that late Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti will be posthumously recognised with a special merit award at the 2026 Grammy Awards.
Fela is among the recipients set to be celebrated at the special merit awards ceremony, which honours winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Trustees Award, and Technical Grammy Award. The event will take place on January 31, 2026, during Grammy Week, on the eve of the main Grammy Awards.
Sharing the announcement on Instagram, the Grammys hailed Fela as the “architect of Afrobeat,” praising his enduring impact on global music.
“An architect of Afrobeat, honored for a lifetime of influence. Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician, producer, arranger, political radical, activist, and the father of Afrobeat. In the 1960s, he created the genre by combining funk, jazz, salsa, calypso, and a blend of traditional Nigerian rhythms,” the Academy stated.
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The Recording Academy further noted that Fela’s legacy extends far beyond his era. “His influence spans generations, shaping modern Nigerian Afrobeats and inspiring global artists such as Beyoncé, Paul McCartney, and Thom Yorke. His legacy continues to live on not only through music, but through his family and through the Kalakuta Museum and the New Afrika Shrine.”
With this honour, Fela joins a distinguished list of special merit award recipients that includes Whitney Houston, Cher, Paul Simon, Chaka Khan, Carlos Santana, Sylvia Rhone, John Chowning, Eddie Palmieri, and Bernie Taupin. The main special awards ceremony is scheduled for February 1, 2026.
At the same time, Nigerian stars Burna Boy, Davido, Ayra Starr, Wizkid, and Omah Lay are among artists currently in the running for Grammy recognition at the 2026 awards.