The 2024 Grammy Awards honored late musicians Tina Turner, Tony Bennett, Sinead O’Connor and Clarence Avant with tribute performances during the ceremony’s “In Memoriam” segment. But Shari Belafonte thinks her late father, the legendary Harry Belafonte, deserved more time.
The actress and musician opened up about her feelings in an essay for Deadline on Friday, detailing Harry’s many cultural achievements and calling for a more meaningful tribute to the Grammy-winning calypso artist, who died of congestive heart failure at the age of 96 in April 2023.
“So many talented, beautiful people left us last year. But for me it would obviously be my father, Harry Belafonte,” wrote Shari, 69, whose father was included in a slideshow at the ceremony but not featured.
Harry Belafonte and Shari Belafonte in Los Angeles in 2006.
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Stevie Wonder headlines the 2024 Grammys ‘In Memoriam’ segment with a posthumous duet with Tony Bennett
“There have been many tributes to Harry since his death in April last year. There will be many more,” she added. “But the one you’d immediately think of as magnificent would be the one the Grammys would do. And yet, his two-second image on the screen was all that was awarded.”
Shari continued, “Don’t get me wrong. While the people who have had a bit more kudos this year absolutely deserve kudos, I’m a little dismayed that Harry wasn’t included in the ‘Special Tribute’ section. And I’m not just saying that because he was my father.”
The Morning show the star explained that Harry was the first black man to win an Emmy, has EGOT status, and has also become an honorary laureate of the Kennedy Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during his career. He also pitched the idea for the 1985 charity hit “We Are the World,” as featured in a recent documentary The biggest night in pop.
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Harry Belafonte. Archive Photos/Getty Harry Belafonte, the musician and activist who brought Calypso music to the world, has died at 96.
In addition to introducing calypso music to a wider audience, Harry was a dedicated activist in the civil rights movement and helped organize many participants in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
“He is the one who created Artists and Athletes Against Apartheid, shedding light on the state of apartheid and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela in South Africa,” Shari wrote. “He was an ambassador for Unicef for over 30 years; he received accolades from all over the world not only for his participation, but for starting a movement for the betterment of humanity.”
“While there is no doubt that Tony Bennett, Tina Turner and others were indeed special and deserved attention at the Grammys, I believe the Grammys also missed an opportunity to remind the world that there is another great artist and humanitarian,” her essay concluded. “But he was sadly overlooked … as many people of color still are.”
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Harry Belafonte. Getty Harry Belafonte remembered after his death by John Legend, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bernice King and others
During the 2024 Grammys’ “In Memoriam” segment, musicians Stevie Wonder, Annie Lennox, Wendy & Lisa, Jon Batiste, Ann Nesby, Cory Henry, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Fantasia Barrino and Adam Blackstone performed to honor Turner, Bennett, O’Connor and Avant.
Harry’s representatives confirmed in a press release in April that Belafonte died “of congestive heart failure at his home in New York at the age of 96, his wife Pamela [Frank] with him.”
Following his death, stars including John Legend, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bernice King, Tiffany Haddish, Patti LaBelle, John Travolta, Sheryl Lee Ralph and others paid tribute to Harry on social media.
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