At the Belgrade concert on September 13, Femi will present this album, but also perform the biggest hits of his multiannual career accompanying the Macedonian Philharmonic. The concert will be held at Kalemegdan, and the entrance will be free.
“I will never be Fela Kuti, but I can be Femi Kuti,” decided the long-known Nigerian musician eager to sparkle a place for himself on the world music scene, while fostering the rich legacy of his legendary father. Fela Kuti was the pioneer of Afrobita, a world-renowned musician, but also a fearless spokesman of her nation, hated by a Nigerian government that he severely criticized. Millions of people attended the funeral of Fele Kuti, equally loved by her music as well as because of her attitudes. The burden of such popularity is not easy to bear, and even harder was his eldest son when he decided to go to his father’s feet.
He was born as Olufel Olufemi Anikulapo Kuti, and his mother called him Femi, in a desire to help her son get out of her father’s shadow. He has been in the water very early, but at the age of 15, he joined Feline Band, Egypt 80. A few years later, he founded his own band, Positive Force, with which he will perform at the upcoming Belgrade concert. By his own confession, he needed a whole decade for people to listen to his music.
Femi built his own style of Afrobit music mixed with African folk music, soul, fan, jazz and R & B music. Like his father and grandmother, feminists and activists of the anti-colonialist movement, Femi often talks about political and social problems. As he says, he uses music as a tool to speak on behalf of the oppressed. “The essence is that Africa has to love Africa. Africa does not need the West to teach us about our culture and tradition. When you watch the news, you see Europe or America saying “Oh, look at the poor kids in the Congo”, “Oh, you see the war in Somalia”. But we must be the ones who talk about our stories, “concluded Femi Kuti.
In his latest album, “One people, One world,” Kuti turns to the universal message of peace- “We are all one and we live on one planet, and we have to understand it urgently before it is destroyed forever.” And since the iver does not fall far from the box, the famed Kuti family name will continue to represent Omorinmade Anikulapo, the son of Femi who joined him on the last album.
