South African singing legend Miriam Makeba has died aged 76, after being taken ill in Italy.

South African singing legend Miriam Makeba has died aged 76, after being taken ill in Italy.
She had just taken part in a concert near the southern town of Caserta and died of a heart attack.

Makeba, known as "Mama Africa", spent more than 30 years in exile after lending her support to the anti-apartheid struggle.

She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland tour in 1987 and in 1992 had a leading role in the film Sarafina!

Passport revoked
Makeba, was born in Johannesburg on 4 March 1932 and was a leading symbol in the struggle against apartheid.

MIRIAM MAKEBA
1932: Born Johannesburg, South Africa
1959: Stars in the jazz opera King Kong and anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, met Harry Belafonte
1960: Barred from South Africa
1963: Testifies against apartheid at the United Nations
1966: Becomes the first African woman to win a Grammy award
1968: Marries Black Panther Stokely Carmichael and moves to Guinea
1985: Moves to Brussels after her child Bongi dies in childbirth
1990: Returns to South Africa after personal request from Nelson Mandela
2005: Begins a "farewell tour" of the world that lasts three years
2008: Dies in Caserta, Italy following a concert, aged 76
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Mandela's tribute to Makeba
Her singing career started in the 1950s as she mixed jazz with traditional South African songs.
She came to international attention in 1959 during a tour of the United States with South African group the Manhattan Brothers.
She was forced into exile soon after when her passport was revoked after starring in an anti-apartheid documentary and did not return to her native country until after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990.

Makeba was the first black African woman to win a Grammy Award, which she shared with Harry Belafonte in 1965.

Charlie Gillett, who presents the BBC World of Music programme, says there is nobody to compare to her, as she was popular in West Africa - after living in exile in Guinea - and East Africa for recording a version of the Swahili song Malaika, as well as her home in South Africa.
She was African music's first world star blending different styles long before the phrase "world music" was coined.
After her divorce from fellow South African musician Hugh Masekela she married American civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael.
It was while living in exile in the US that she released her most famous songs, Pata Pata and the Click Song.
"You sing about those things that surround you," she said. "Our surrounding has always been that of suffering from apartheid and the racism that exists in our country. So our music has to be affected by all that."
It was because of this dedication to her home continent that Miriam Makeba became known as Mama Africa.

Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 - 9 November 2008[1]) was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer, also known as Mama Afrika.
Click here: YouTube - Miriam Makeba - The Click Song 1966
Miriam Zenzi Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa. As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years.

Makeba first toured with an amateur group. Her professional career began in the 1950s with the Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa.

In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Though she was a successful recording artist, she was only receiving a few dollars for each recording session and no provisional royalties, and was keen to go to the US. Her break came when she starred in the anti-Apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959. She went to the premier of the film at the Venice Film Festival.

Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including "Pata Pata", "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa), and "Malaika". In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid.

She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against Apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, [2] and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.[3]
Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Black Panthers leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife. Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She was one of the African and Afro-American entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre. Makeba also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.

After the death of her only daughter Bongi Makeba in 1985, she moved to Brussels. In 1987, she appeared in Paul Simon's Graceland tour. Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography Makeba: My Story (ISBN 0-453-00561-6).

Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990. In the fall of 1991, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Cosby Show, entitled "Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet". In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, as the title character's mother, "Angelina." She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony where she and others recalled the days of Apartheid.
In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by Cedric Samson and Michael Levinsohn[4] was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music" category[5]. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she shared the Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life. [3]
Her publicist notes that Makeba had suffered "severe arthritis" for some time.[6]
She died in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy, in the evening of 9 November 2008, of a heart attack, shortly after taking part in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation.[7][8][9] In his condolence message, former South African president Nelson Mandela said it was “fitting that Makeba died doing what she did best - singing.”

Singer Miriam Makeba dies
Makeba became popular with her song 'Pata pata' [EPA]
Miriam Makeba, the world-renowned South African singer, has died at the age of 76 after collapsing on stage during her last performance.
Makeba was taken ill to a hosptial early Monday morning near the southern Italian town of Naples.
"I'm not yet absolutely certain of the causes of her passing, but she has had arthritis, severe arthritis, for some time," her publicist told an Italian radio station, however other reports said she passed away after sufferring a heart attack.
Makeba was best known to her fans as 'Mama Africa' as she became the distinguished voice of Africa and a symbol of the fight against apartheid in her home country.
"Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us," said Nelson Mandela, who led the struggle to replace the apartheid regime of South Africa with a multi-racial democracy.
Born in a shantytown outside of Johannesburg on March 4 1932, Makeba first received international attention as a featured vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in 1954. She toured the US until 1959.
The following year, when she wanted to return home to bury her mother, the apartheid state revoked her citizenship and also banned her music.
As a result, she spent 31 years in exile, living in the US and later in Guinea before becoming the first black African woman to receive a Grammy Award, which she shared with folk singer Harry Belafonte in 1965.
'Pata, Pata'
Two years later her fame sky-rocketed with the recording of the all-time hit "Pata Pata". From that point, Makeba stood out for her distinctive clicking sounds, which she used to punctuate songs in her native Xhosa language.
She hit an all-time low in 1985 when Bongi, her only daughter, died at the age of 36 from complications from a miscarriage.
Makeba did not have money to buy a coffin for Bongi so she buried her alone barring a handful of journalists covering the funeral.
But she picked herself up again, as she did many times before, surviving failed marriages and illness.
'Homeland'
She returned to South Africa in the 1990s after Mandela was released from prison.
However, it took a cash-strapped Makeba six years to find someone in the local recording industry to produce a record with her.
She then released "Homeland" which contains a song describing her joy to be back home after the many years in exile.
"I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising," she said in her biography.