OutMusic - The LGBT Academy of Recording Arts (LARA)  

LABI SIFFRE

 

Labi Siffre is a British singer, songwriter, musician, poet and Human Rights activist who has also written for the stage. His poetry collections include: Nigger (1993), Blood on the Page (1995) and Monument (1997). 

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He came out of self-imposed retirement from music in 1985, when he saw a television film from apartheid South Africa showing a white soldier shooting at black children. He wrote                   "(Something Inside) So Strong" in 1986. 'Something Inside So Strong' won the 1986 Ivor Novello award for best song musically and lyrically. It was sung as an anti-apartheid anthem in apartheid South Africa and is used worldwide by gay groups, women’s groups, disability groups, sexual abuse recovery groups and many other organisations (Amnesty International, for example) as an anthem of self-empowerment.

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Outmusic awarded Labi Siffre with the Outmusic Spirit Award for his contirbutions, achievements, and his audacity of hope for the HUMAN SPIRIT in us all.  

 

Famous Rapper Eminem’s first hit single ‘My Name Is’ sampled the rhythm track of ‘I Got The ...’ from Siffre’s (1975) album Remember My Song, including Siffre on electric piano. Following that various Rappers like Jay-Z and Kanye west also sampled Siffre's work. In '98/99 Siffre retired from music performance after The Last Songs Tour in '98/'99.

 

He met his life partner Peter John Carver Lloyd in July 1964. They remained together until Lloyd's death in 2013,having entered a civil partnership in 2005, as soon as this was possible in the UK. READ MORE

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