Ahead of 10th album, Femi Kuti releases new song

The new track premiered on the Billboard chart upon its release on 14 November and like much of Femi Kuti’s output expresses a need for global peace and a need for unity. The production features horns and percussive elements.

According to a statement by Chocolate City, under which the forthcoming album will be released locally, “The song, with its call to set aside differences and work towards a more peaceful world, is one that closely follows his own vocation as an activist; Kuti serves as a spokesperson for UNICEF advocating for children’s rights and is a promoter of HIV/AIDS prevention and education. He and his band, Positive Force, recorded much of the album in Lagos.”

Femi Kuti is widely regarded as royalty in Afrobeat, the genre his father, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, created and played until his death in 1997.

Since the elder Kuti’s death, Femi and his siblings have organised the Felabration festival as a series of concerts in remembrance of the Afrobeat maestro. Femi Kuti has been nominated four times at the Grammys and plays with the Positive Force, a band created in 1986.