Apple Inc. has launched the new MacBook Air with the M5 chip, using Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s 1971 song ‘Let’s Start’ as the soundtrack for the campaign.
The company unveiled the laptop on Tuesday and shared a promotional video on its YouTube channel. The video plays the song while highlighting the device’s faster performance and slim design.
‘Let’s Start’ is from the live album Live!, recorded in London by Fela Kuti and his band Africa ’70 with drummer Ginger Baker. The track is one of the early recordings that helped define Fela’s Afrobeat sound.
Industry observers say the sync deal gives Fela’s catalogue renewed global reach. Apple’s product launch videos are viewed widely across its website, social media platforms and Apple Music. The use of the track also links listeners to Fela’s broader discography, including songs such as ‘Zombie,’ ‘Water No Get Enemy,’ and ‘Expensive Shit.’
The song previously gained international exposure in the 2021 western film The Harder They Fall, produced by Jay-Z and directed by Jeymes Samuel. The film featured actors including Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Regina King and LaKeith Stanfield.
The move comes weeks after Fela received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in February. He became the first African artiste to receive the honour from The Recording Academy.
Fela, who died in 1997, is widely regarded as the pioneer of Afrobeat, a genre that blends jazz, highlife and traditional African rhythms with social and political commentary.
