A flight from Nairobi to Kampala is approximately 1 hour – that’s how long Nigeria’s legendary musician, Femi Kuti, held a single note on his saxophone for – 51 minutes and 33 seconds to be exact.
Femi – the son of Afrobeat music icon and activist, Fela Kuti – is a music legend in his own right and this record, he says, should inspire others to test their limits and never give up. This is the musician’s second attempt at breaking the record after falling short during his first attempt by under a minute.
It was a shocking feat for the 54-year-old Nigerian musician, one that is going to go down in history as the longest single note ever played on a saxophone.
Femi Kuti shattered the record after his second attempt when he realised there was a previous record set by Vann Burchfield at 45minutes, 5.5 seconds in the year 2000. His first unsuccessful attempt was heartbreaking for Femi’s fans. He says they convinced him to try again.
“Unfortunately for me when I first attempted the record we knew of the [current] record that was there because if you Googled it, [the record] came up immediately. So everybody was on about it and I said I would attempt it,” said Femi.
“After three attempts and failing, I then got to 46 minutes; it was like wow, then waking up in the morning I get a call from somebody saying ‘but that’s not the world record’, there is another record of 47.
“I said wow, that is like, I mean, my whole fan base was like heartbroken including myself of course and it was, I knew, probably age as well, but I knew [I had] to start to get my mind ready to try to even reach 46 minutes again it was already tedious and an impossible task, and it was.”
Femi says he learnt the skill known as circular breathing from his father – Fela Kuti, a legendary musician who is known as the King of Afrobeat.
Although the Guinness World Book of Records does not recognise the record’s category, Femi says his attempt was not to break the record but to enhance creativity.
“They should not be disappointed that the Guinness Book does not recognise the award. It was never my objective, if it was my objective I would have called them to be there. I didn’t want them to be there.
“It was to show the possibility to give, especially young African boys and girls, that even at my age, we are not limited to achieving greatness. We can get out of any mess if we want to if we set our minds.
“We can stop corruption, we can bring, we can make Africa the envy of the world, we can build a road from Lagos to Johannesburg and only young people if they believe in this dream, young people can get us out of the mess we are in as a continent as so it was to give young people inspiration that if a man at my age can achieve this, which is very tedious, they should not, they should really focus on making Africa great.”
The talented musician – who is also an activist, like his father – plays every week to a packed audience which is devouted to his music and artistry.
Now that he has crossed the record off of his bucket list, Femi says he is back to creating more music.
