Since the Best Reggae Album category became included in the Recording Academy’s annual Grammy Awards ceremony about 35 years ago, the handover of the golden gramophone from announcer to winner has never been televised. Being kept off-screen has...
Last year, there was an array of things to marvel at within the local entertainment industry. From Popcaan’s recent traffic-blocking Unruly Fest – a beacon to the east as St Thomas’ new calendar event, to Buju Banton’s history-making Long Walk To...
It was the day after Christmas, and all through the night, peals and squeals of laughter echoed around The Jamaica Pegasus Grand Ballroom. It was an evening of delight. It was the ‘sweet 16th’ staging of Ellis International’s Christmas Comedy Cook-...
American actress Victoria Rowell recently hosted a fundraiser for the Annie Dawson Children’s Home. It was a film screening of Jacqueline and Jilly, written and directed by Rowell, centring on the global opioid crisis. It was an occasion that...
Word from ‘Cat’ Coore, guitarist, cellist and founding member of the ‘Reggae Ambassadors’, Third World, is that the band is over the moon about their latest album, More Work To Be Done, being nominated for a Grammy award in the Best Reggae Album...
Young Jamaican film-maker Saeed Thomas has been selected as one of the international producers, with the first Jamaican project, to be pitched at the Euro-Connection 2020 forum, at the 42nd Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (CISFF...
The pervasive power of reggae and dancehall music around the world need not be defended. It is an inarguable phenomenon that remains affirmed, particularly with the exciting rise of young singjay Koffee. The year 2019 closes with the 19-year-old...
Designing a framework to support an industry or to connect structures operating in isolation into one healthy, functioning ecosystem where one didn’t exist before is undoubtedly a monumental task. As one sector of the local creative, or Orange,...
There are no words to aptly describe the year Julian Marley has had. Bittersweet may be one, but it certainly does not encapsulate the grief that comes with losing a child just a few months after a cancer diagnosis, then closing a frantic, fervent...
On his re-entry into in the wild world of the Internet, a space powered by social media, local superstar entertainer Buju Banton takes it back to basics. Last Friday, the entertainer released the brand new track, Trust, produced by highly respected...
Once considered Perry Henzell’s only feature film, The Harder They Come is hailed as a classic by film lovers and critics all over the world, across generations. Now, old reels that were lost have been found, and over 40 years after its start,...
Last month, as part of the Business of Sustainability for Studios (BOSS) programme, the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), with support from the World Bank, led a second delegation with eight...
While Jamaica struggles to establish effective entertainment zones and argues around the development of a performing arts centre or the restoration of existing theatre spaces, the United States (US) West Coast is a region ripe with real roots-...
Starting this week, two beloved music events will join forces for a new kind of Wednesday night. Collaborating with Gabre Selassie’s scenesetting event, the groovy, multigenre musicians responsible for the Thursday night open-mic jam sessions at...
With the influence of big-name producers like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Sprinter got the Hollywood treatment on every level, including music. Recently, the motion picture soundtrack hit the shelves with a line-up featuring Jamaican and...
For the upcoming Red Bull Culture Clash, which will be hosted in Kingston, Jamaica, for the first time, the general consensus among the participants is that the event may turn out to be much more than just a clash. As the brand puts energy behind a...
At just about two years old, King Remo Sound System is saddled with the responsibility of being San Antonio, Texas’ first point of reference for reggae and dancehall culture. Built from scratch by Mexican-American reggae artist, Sgt Remo, the irie...
“Any word and every word can make lyrics. As long as you can talk it, it can come inna lyrics.” Artiste manager Junior ‘Heavy D’ Fraser made this observation during The Gleaner’s Entertainment Forum recently. Though it is an obvious one – that...
Jamaica is the birthplace of reggae music, but California has maintained a dominant space for the genre, with multiple annual roots and reggae music festivals that pull thousands of fans. The organisers regularly invite local stars like Chronixx,...
Red Bull is ready to take its biggest musical event to Jamaican soil, and The Sunday Gleaner caught up with one of the losers, who was happy to have participated in one of the brand’s epic Culture Clash face-offs. Based in New York, Max Glazer is...
There was a chance that Noel Dexter’s musical legacy of leading and composing would have ended with him, but his family seemed to have little choice but to sing or play. By both accounts, from his daughter, Carol Dexter-Dwyer, and only grandson,...
It is a universally accepted idea that reggae music is freedom music, that the essence of the genre is founded in our people’s resistance to oppressive empires and colonial ideologies. For some, that idea is a bit restrictive because resistance...
Last summer, controversy-laden American rapper XXXTentacion was gunned down by a group of young men in an apparent robbery, but his death has not stopped the artiste’s domination of the rap music charts. Since his passing in June 2018, a number of...
At 30 years old, Mikhail Morris has compiled an impressive repertoire, one that continues to stun even him. A street dancer, his career officially took off when he competed on talent show Dancing Dynamites and placed second on his second attempt...
From its inception, reggae music has characteristically been associated with Rastafarians, the tropics, and spliffs sending up plumes of cannabis smoke. Acknowledging this everlasting connection to music, Clyde McKenzie, organiser of the upcoming...
