The world bade farewell yesterday to a legend of calypso and Caribbean folk music, as Harry Belafonte, 96, succumbed to congestive heart failure at his Manhattan, New York home.
Trinidad and Tobago and the region undoubtedly owe him a debt of gratitude for his contribution to the spread of our music and culture, and the awareness that he brought to the region with his song.
Belafonte made music history in 1956 as the first solo artiste to ever have an album sell over a million times - 'Harry Belafonte: Calypso'.
In the late 1950s, the Brooklyn-born entertainer of Jamaican parentage took calypso music across the world, as the album topped the Billboard charts for 31 straight weeks, spent 58 weeks in the top ten and 99 weeks in the top 100.
It was due mostly to the infectious lyrics of The Banana Boat Song, with the catchy lines 'Day O, Day O....Come Mister tally man, tally me banana, daylight come and we want go home', which remains to this day among the most popular set of lyrics borne out of Caribbean life.
Songs such as Island in the Sun, Limbo Song, Farewell to Jamaica, Coconut Woman, Senora and Matilda reflected the culture of the islands and paved the way for several other calypsonians to gain international exposure.
Belafonte in return, had several T&T artistes to thank for some of his big songs. 'Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)' was originally written by late T&T calypso maestro Lord Kitchener, although it was made famous by Belafonte in 1961, and he had Lord Melody to thank for 'Mama Look a Boo Boo' which appeared on his 1957 album, 'The Versatile Mr Belafonte'.
The regional contribution to his music also extended to Barbados, as late Barbadian-American Irving "Lord Burgess" Burgie, who composed Barbados' national anthem, wrote 34 songs for Belafonte, including eight of the 11 songs on the 1956 Calypso album.
As his popularity spread, Belafonte was dubbed the "King of Calypso," a title he wore with reservations, since he had no claim to any Calypso Monarch titles.
Belafonte, instead, saw The Mighty Sparrow as the true calypso king, a title that has remained with 'The Birdie', whose calypsoes have also had reach far beyond the Caribbean.
His music aside, as a former close confidant of 1950s/60s civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, Belafonte was known to have bailed Dr King and other activists out of jail and was one of the organisers of the 1963 March on Washington.
While his activism earned him even greater love among the Black community in the region, it was the legendary 1956 album and his renditions of calypso and folk music for which Belafonte will forever be remembered.
The album was inducted into the US National Recording Registry in 2017 because of its cultural importance to the USA's recorded sound heritage. Belafonte also won three Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), an Emmy Award and a Tony Award and in 1994, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Above all, he gave his talent to promoting the culture of these islands in the sun and assured that for the love he gave, these shores will always remember him.
May he rest in peace.