South African singer, Miriam Makeba, dies at 76. She was banned from her own country for more than 30 years under apartheid.

• In her dazzling career, Makeba performed with musical legends from around the world such as, jazz maestros Nina Simona and Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte and Paul Simon. She also sang for world leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela.
• “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”, Mandela said in a statement.
• Makeba collapsed on stage Sunday night after singing one of her most famous hits “Pata Pata”, her family said in a statement.
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• Her grandson, Nelson Lumumba Lee was with her as well as her long-time friend, Italian promoter Roberto Meglioli.
• “ Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid and colonialism through the art of song”, South African Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said in a statement.
• Makeba wrote in her 1987 memories that friends and relatives who first encouraged her perform compared her voice to that of nightingale. With her distinctive style combining jazz with folk with South African township rhythms, she was often called “The Empress of African Song”.
• Makeba was the first African woman to win a Grammy award, started singing in Sophia town, a cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Johannesburg that was a cultural hotspot in the 1950s before its black residents were forcibly removed by the apartheid government.
• In 1963, Makeba appeared before the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid to call for an international boycott of South Africa. The South African government responded by banning her records, including hits like “Pata Pata”, “The click Song” and “Malaika

• Makeba participated in the first African festival 1969 in Algeria and said “My songs are about my South Africa. However, I have decided to sing for other countries I have visited my carrier developed, but I think South African traditional and cultural songs are the most important.
• The festival was an opportunity for Makeba to sing her famous “Africa” in a duo with Algerian singer Mohamed Elamari who said I’m sad because we lost an African icon and an amazing woman who sacrificed herself for humanity and the  African cause as well rest of the world”.  
• “Mama Makeba” is not only a loss for South Africans but for all Africans in the world.