Claudius Afolabi Siffre (born June 25, 1945), better known as Labi Siffre, is a British singer, songwriter, and poet. Between 1970 and 1975, Siffre released six albums, and from 1988 to 1998, he released four more. His notable compositions include “It Must Be Love,” which reached number 14 on the UK Singles Chart in 1971 (later covered by the band Madness), “Crying Laughing Loving Lying,” and the anti-apartheid anthem “(Something Inside) So Strong,” inspired by a documentary showing white soldiers in South Africa shooting at black civilians. “(Something Inside) So Strong” climbed to number 4 on the UK chart and earned Siffre the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. The song has also been featured in Amnesty International campaigns.
Siffre has written essays, a stage and television play Deathwrite, and three volumes of poetry: Nigger, Blood on the Page, and Monument. In 2022, his life and work were explored in the Imagine series under the title Labi Siffre: This Is My Song.
Early Life and Education
Born in 1945, Siffre was the fourth of five children, to a British mother of English and Afro-Barbadian descent and a Nigerian father. He grew up in Bayswater and Hampstead, London, and attended St Benedict’s School in Ealing, West London. Despite his Catholic education, Siffre has always identified as an atheist. He studied music at the Eric Gilder School of Music in Soho, London, and later performed jazz guitar in a house band at Annie Ross’s jazz club in Soho during the 1960s.
Career
Siffre released six albums between 1970 and 1975, achieving hits with songs like “It Must Be Love” (No. 14 in 1971), “Crying Laughing Loving Lying” (No. 11 in 1972), and “Watch Me” (No. 29 in 1972). He briefly competed in the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest to represent the UK but resumed his music career in 1985 after witnessing a disturbing documentary from Apartheid-era South Africa. This led to his creation of “(Something Inside) So Strong,” which peaked at No. 4 on the UK chart in 1987.
Several of Siffre’s tracks have been sampled in hip-hop, most famously his 1975 track “I Got The…” which Eminem used for “My Name Is” in 1999. His song “My Song” from 1972 was also sampled by Kanye West in “I Wonder” from Graduation. His track “I Got The…” was re-released as a single in 2003 due to its renewed popularity.
Personal Life
Siffre met his long-time partner Peter Lloyd in 1964, and they were together for 48 years, entering into a civil partnership in 2005. Following Lloyd’s death in 2013, Siffre married Rudolf van Baardwijk in 2014. Van Baardwijk passed away in 2016, and Siffre now resides in Spain.
In 2014, Siffre appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Great Lives, where he highlighted the life of British author Arthur Ransome, crediting Ransome’s books with shaping his sense of responsibility and morality.
