Grammy Awards Reggae Winners

Reggae Category of the Grammy Awards

To receive the Grammy Awards is possibly every musician’s dream. Listed among the top 10 awards globally by Cristaux, the Grammy serves to honour outstanding accomplishments by musicians during the course of the previous year.  Most Grammy Awardees are not surprisingly US citizens, since the award is based on that country’s music industry. Nonetheless, global popularity of the Grammy Awards is in part attributed to the inclusive nature of the US music industry. For instance, reggae which originates in Jamaica and universal in popular music, is included in the awards.

The Reggae category was first introduced to the Grammy Awards in 1985, since then, most awardees are Jamaican. The finalists in this category are luminaries, who have contributed to building reggae’s reputation as a global brand.  Surprisingly the most famous reggae artist Bob Marley never received an award during his lifetime, but his sons Ziggy, Stephen, and Damian have together won 12 awards so far. In 2001 the Grammys awarded Bob Marley a posthumous lifetime achievement award.

 Other famous awardees include veterans in reggae music, such as Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Burning Spear, Inner Circle, Sly and Robbie.  Among the more contemporary awardees are Sean Paul, Shaggy, Buju Banton and Beenie Man.

 The 2020 Grammy awardee in the Reggae category is a complete exception from the past. For the first time Koffee (Michela Simpson), a relatively unknown female singer, won the award for her song titled Rapture.  This achievement is unprecedented for Koffee is only 19 years old, the first woman and relatively new on the international stage. Koffee was among a list of well-known nominees - Julian Marley, Sly and Robbie, Steel Pulse, Radics and Third World. Possibly the only thing Koffee has in common with the others is that she is Jamaican.

Here is a YouTube video of Koffee receiving the Grammy Award:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw9-46aHSYc

Burna Boy Cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ld79_2whFE

Also visit our art gallery: https://www.experiencejamaique.com/product_gallery

February 2020