The Unofficial Website for Fela Kuti and Afrobeat Music

Hot news:                    femi_single

  • Femi has a new single out on ITunes called Africa for Africa. A new album is expected later this year.
     
  • And the winner is...??? Chiwetel Ejiofor will be playing Fela in the biopic on the life of Fela Kuti. The movie will simply be called Fela. Ejiofor’s credits include 2012 and Children of Men. Ejiofor is learning to play the piano and saxophone for his role and is apparently getting “pretty good at it”!
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    waxpoetics
  • Wax Poetics, a magazine covering all forms of black music, has dedicated an entire issue to African music with Fela on it’s cover. Available in stores or order your issue online.
     
  • Follow reporter Marco Werman of Music Without Borders to Lagos, Nigeria, in this short documentary on Afrobeat featuring Fela and Seun Kuti. Contains live footage from The Shrine! You can also listen to a breakdown of Afrobeat’s musical components in this audio file.
     
  • UK director Steven McQueen has signed to direct a biopic on the life of Fela Kuti. Filming will start this year in Nigeria and other locations. Steve McQueen won praise with his film Hunger about the IRA hungerstrikes. I will post more info as it becomes available.
     
  • The musical about the life of the late Fela Kuti will be performed on Broadway in New York City starting October 19 2009.  Raving reviews from the cultural capital of the world tell us that this musical event is a must for Fela fans and everybody else. FELA! stars Sahr NgaujahMore as Fela Kuti and Antibalas will be playing the music. More information...

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  • Now available: Fela: Kalakuta Notes by West-African music expert John Collins. See the Books section for a review. Below the author is presented with a copy by Kofi Ayivor, former drummer of Afro-rock sensation Osibisa. Listen to interviews with the author by De Wandelende Tak (partly in Dutch) and Boeken.vpro.nl (in English).


    Title: Fela: Kalakuta Notes
    Author: John Collins
    Publisher: KIT Publishers
    Price: 25 euro’s
    Pages: 159
    Softcover, 8 by 12 inches
    Illustrated
    Published in: April 2009
    ISBN 9789068327489














  • Seun Kuti has shot his first professional video for the song Many Things. Well done, Seun!


     
  • After seven years, Femi Kuti and The Positive Force are back with a new studio album: Day by Day. Here’s the tracklist:

    1. Oyimbo
    2. Eh Oh
    3. Day by Day
    4. Demo Crazy
    5. Do You KnowFemi_Kuti-Day_by_Day2
    6. You Better Ask Yourself
    7. One Two
    8. Tell Me
    9. They Will Run
    10. Tension Grip Africa
    11. Dem Funny
    12. Let's Make History

    Thanks to Ian from Wrasse Records I have the CD and it’s fantastic.
    Check out my full review of Day by Day.   
     
  • Seun Kuti’s first album (with Fela’s Egypt 80 band), self-titled, is now available in record stores or from Amazon. Tracklist:

    1. Many Things
    2. Na Oil
    3. Don’t Give that Shit to Me
    4. Fire Dance
    5. Think Africa
    6. Mosquito Song
    7. African Problems