Miriam Makeba, the late singer, 'World Music' performer and civil rights campaigner, has been honoured with a Google doodle on her 81st Birthday.

Born in Johannesburg 4 March, 1932. She came to prominence after touring the US extensively and appearing on numerous television programs. In the 1960's the South African Apartheid government cancelled her passport to prevent her returning home from her professional engagements. She performed with numerous artists such as Paul Simon, Hugh Masekela (her husband) and the well known Calypso artist Harry Belafonte. She signed with RCA Victor and released Miriam Makeba, her first U.S. studio album, in 1960. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at John F. Kennedy's birthday party at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the aftershow party because she was ill. President Kennedy insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to  pick her up from her hotel. In 1963, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200.Taking refuge in the USA. In 1968 she married Stokely Carmichael, a leading member of the Black Panther Party, a radical organisation and as a result her record deals and many of her tours were cancelled.

Makeba returned to South Africa after the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990. She died in Italy in 2008 during a performance for Roberto Saviano, the author of Sodom and Gomorrah. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the "Pineta Grande" clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.