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Fela Kuti was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night in Los Angeles, becoming the first African-born solo artiste to enter the hall.
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He received the Early Influence Award, and his family was present at the ceremony.
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He is also the first African musician to receive the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
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The ceremony airs on ABC on December 8.
November 15, (THEWILL) – Nigerian music legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night, becoming the first African-born solo artist to enter the hall.
Kuti, who died in 1997, was honoured with the Early Influence Award at the ceremony, at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles. He was inducted through a video tribute, as were fellow posthumous honorees Gram Parsons and Celia Cruz.
His family was present at the ceremony to receive the award on his album.
The honour completes a remarkable stretch for the Afrobeat pioneer. The Recording Academy gave him a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy, which made him the first African musician to receive the award.
In 2025, his 1976 album Zombie became the first Nigerian record to enter the Grammy Hall of Fame, and it turns 50 this year.
The road to the Rock Hall was not quick.
Kuti was nominated in 2021 and again in 2022 before the Hall finally welcomed him this year.
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When the class was announced, the Hall paid tribute to a revolutionary voice that confronted injustice through innovative music, blending jazz, West African sounds and soul to build Afrobeat. Kuti released more than 50 albums, and his songs carried sharp political messages that often put him at odds with Nigeria’s military rulers.
It is worth noting how the “first” is worded. Other African-born musicians, including Queen’s Freddie Mercury and Dave Matthews, are already in the Hall as members of groups based on other continents. Kuti is the first African-born artist to be inducted as a solo performer.
He enters the Hall in a class of 18 that includes Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Sade, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Luther Vandross, Oasis, Wu-Tang Clan, Iron Maiden, and Celia Cruz, who becomes the first member to have sung mainly in Spanish.
Unlike in recent years, the ceremony was not streamed live. An edited version will air on ABC on December 8, with streaming on Disney+ and Hulu the next day, so fans will have to wait to see how Kuti’s tribute played out on the night, although clips are available on social media.
For Nigerians, the moment goes beyond one award. A genre born at the Afrika Shrine in Lagos, shaped by a man who spent his life challenging power, now has a permanent place in the institution that has long defined rock history.
About Honour
The Rock Hall’s Early Influence Award recognises artists whose music and performance style directly influenced and evolved rock and roll.
Eligibility opens 25 years after an artist’s first commercial recording.
Gertrude Oby is a writer and journalist passionate about the creative industries. Works span fashion, film, media, art, and culture.