2011 International Reggae and World Music Awards performances

The prestigious IRAWMA ceremony which will be held at the National Academy for Performing Arts on Saturday May 28th will offer the very best in regional talent such as Trinidad & Tobago’s own Machel Montano (pictured here, performing at a past IRAWMA celebration), She’s Royal singer Taurus Riley, and Jamaican music legends Freddie McGregor and Dean Fraser. Patrons can also look forward to dynamic performances by dancehall divas Macka Diamond and Tifa, Denise ‘Saucy Wow’ Belfon, Queen Ifrica and St. Maarten’s leading pannist and calypsonian The Mighty Dow. Reggae icons Shaggy and Tony Rebel will serve as MCs for this fun-filled evening.

Shaggy (pictured at right) will work double duty during this upcoming weekend as he will transition from the role of host to performer at the Sunday 29th May event “Reggae meets Soca/Chutney” at the Queen’s Park Savannah. At this concert spectacular Shaggy will display his Grammy Award winning talent alongside longtime cohort Rayvon and will share the stage with the cream of the Caribbean music crop including the ‘King of the Dancehall’ Beenie Man (pictured below), reggae crooner Jah Cure, Gramps Morgan (of Morgan Heritage fame), The Roy Cape All Stars with Blaxx and several chutney and soca artistes.

Attendees of these events can expect 2 world class productions complete with multi-genre all star casts and memorable surprises. As the IRAWMA weekend approaches more artistes will be announced.

The 30th IRAWMA anniversary is sponsored by Blink/Bmobile, Angostura Bitters, the Hyatt Regency Trinidad, T&T Ministry of Tourism, Tourism Development Company Limited (TDC), Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Tobago Department of Tourism (TDT), Direct Music TV America, Soca 91.9 FM, M.O.R.E. 104.7 FM, Boom Champions 94.1FM, Caribbean Rumour Mill, Jlehsiek and TrinJam Foods.

For information on IRAWMA, tickets and travel, log onto www.irawma.com or call 312-427-0266 (North America) OR 868-475-1000 (Caribbean).

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Damian Robert Nesta Marley was born on July 21st, 1978 in Kingston, Jamaica to his mother Cindy Breakspear and father Bob Marley. Cindy Breakspear was Jamaica’s Miss World in 1976.

Damian Marley was raised in a Kingston suburb by both Cindy and Rita Marley, along with 12 siblings; 10 on his father’s side and 2 on his mother’s side. As a teenager, Damian performed with musical group The Shepherds alongside Shiah Coore (son of Cat Coore of Third World) and Yashema Beth McGregor (daughter of Judy Mowatt of the I-Threes and Freddie McGregor). The group had moderate success in Jamaica, performing at the Reggae Sunsplash music festival in 1992, but ultimately disbanded.

After leaving The Shepherds, Damian turned to deejaying (the Jamaican equivalent of rapping), and in 1993 releases his debut single Deejay Degree, on his family’s Tuff Gong label. He followed it the next year with his release of Sexy Girls on My Mind for the Main Street label and in 1999 released School Controversy, a song featured on the Epic/Sony Wonder compilation Positively Reggae. The compilation raised money and awareness for the Leaf of Life Foundation, an organization assisting children who are HIV positive. Although he was only a teenager, Damian Marley was selected as the spokesperson for Positively Reggae, and was introduced to the international press and public.

In 1996 Damian Marley collaborated with his older brother Stephen Marley to release his first album, Mr. Marley, while still in high school. The album featured upbeat dancehall-style songs, many of which were co-written by Stephen and Damian. The Marley brothers recorded the album at the Marley Music 48 track-recording studio. Included on this album is the infamous track, Me Name Jr. Gong, in which Damian tells of his nickname, derived from his father’s nickname “Tuff Gong”. “Tuff Gong” also became the name of the label created by Bob Marley in the mid-60′s (before he signed with Island Records), an independent record label still in existence, controlled by the Marley family, and part of Damian’s future musical career. Me Name Jr. Gong held the number 1 slot in Hawaii for many weeks.

Damian Jr. Gong Marley’s next album, Halfway Tree was produced by Stephen Marley and released in 2001 by Marley Boyz productions. The album’s title was both a reference to the Halfway Tree area of Kingston, where the privileged rich and the desperate poor geographically meet (a theme common in Damian’s music) and the fact that his father is from the ghetto and his mother is from uptown, leaving Damian like a bridge between the two. In this musical expression, Damian mixed hip-hop and dancehall styles with fantastic results; the album received a great deal of critical acclaim. Both Stephen and Damian are awarded praise and recognition for this project, including the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album, a category not added to the Grammys in the mid-1980s.

2004 was a big year for Damian Marley. In addition to participating in the 27-city Bob Marley Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival tour with his four brothers, Ziggy Marley, Julian Marley, Stephen, and Ky-Mani Marley, Damian released the hit single Welcome to Jamrock, a song released on the Tuff Gong label that makes a big splash on the commercial scene.

In December of 2004, Damian performed with brothers Stephen and Julian in Stephen’s music video Traffic Jam on Stephen Marley’s Mind Control album, which goes on to win the 2008 Grammy award for Best Reggae album. In the same year, Damian also records a tune called Ganga Bus with Cypress Hill (from the Till Death Do Us Part album), appears on the song Get a Light by Snoop Dog (from Tha Blue Carpet Treatment album), creates songs with both Method Man and Redman, and is featured on the Gwen Stefani remix Now That You Got It, amongst many more amazing collaborations.

Welcome to Jamrock enjoyed a great deal of commercial success and led to Damian Marley signing with Universal Records, with whom he released the Welcome to Jamrock album in 2005. This album blended even more musical styles than Damian’s previous work, incorporating elements of reggae, R&B, and hip-hop, and reached the charts in each of those genres. The album also reached as high as number 7 on the Billboard top 200 albums. Welcome to Jamrock received a Grammy award for Best Urban/Alternative performance, and the album won Damian and Stephen yet another Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2006.

Damian also appeared on the song Girlz ‘Round the World with Morgan Heritage on their album Full Circle. The 2006 Ben Harper tour landed Damian on many famous stages including Central Park, New York and further touring takes him to the Osheaga Festival in Montreal. Damian appeared at Bonnarroo Music Festival, headlined the Peace Fest in Trinidad, performed on the PBS show Austin City Limits, and the list goes on…

Most recently, in May of 2010, Damian Marley collaborated with Nas to release the Distant Relatives album and joint tour.

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With got Mojo?, Mojo Morgan has crafted an alternative rasta rock album infused with heavy reggae, hip hop, and R&B flavors. The lyrics maintain the conscious messages common to previous Morgan Heritage albums, with a heavy dose of rock and soul to keep audiences grooving. Mojo has been compared to voices as unique as Jack Johnson, 311, and Bob Marley, the original roots rocker.

Mojo Morgan continues the trend of many recent conscious reggae albums such as Sizzla‘s Ghetto Youth-Ology with a varied track list on got Mojo? that includes socially conscious tracks like Petrified (which addresses domestic violence) and ranges from the party track Tonight to the far mellower, soulful lover’s tune Till the End which features Mischu Laikah & Laza. Mojo even channels a little Easy Star All-Stars vibe with his reggae cover of The Police classic, Roxanne.

got Mojo? reflects Mojo Morgan‘s myriad life experiences, from his youth in Brooklyn, New York, to later life in Massachusetts, and finally a return to Jamaica as 1 of 5 sibling members of internationally-acclaimed “reggae royalty” group Morgans Heritage. Morgan Heritage’s most recent album, 2008′s Mission In Progress, included the singles Faithful and Raid Rootz Dance. Morgan Heritage‘s hits were regularly played on national and international radio as well as music television stations BET, VH1, and MTV. Surrounded by sessions of intensive vocal and instrumental training, Mojo was exposed to everything from the godfathers of roots reggae to Top 40 American Radio.

Born Memo Morgan and later called Mr. Mojo, Mojo is one of legendary reggae artist Denroy Morgan‘s 30 children. Mojo’s album release follows shortly after Denroy Morgan’s recent solo reggae album, Theocracy Reign.

Mojo Morgan‘s Jamaican roots were always an important part of his style, and got Mojo? chronicles hiss evolution from reggae to his own new definition of Rasta-Rock.

You can preview Mojo Morgan’s roots rocker music on MySpace: www.myspace.com/mrmojomorgan
You can hear a stream of Mojo’s tracks on imeem: www.imeem.com/mojomorgan

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Denroy Morgan is now in his 60s. He has been recording since 1965, building his musical ministry even further with his latest release. Theocracy Reign fuses reggae, R&B, and gospel into a spiritual celebration of scripture and Rastafarian reasoning. He has always recorded in many different styles and collaborate with different producers. The Theocracy Reign reggae album was produced by Mr. Morgan and Clifford Branch and mixes blissful guitar leads, soulful piano chords and Nyobingi drum rhythms. A powerful spiritual revival takes place on strong-willed, enlightening, and uplifting songs like “Go Before Us”, “Lion of Judah” “Why Should I”, “The More We Are Together”, “Rock A My Soul” and closing track “Bless Be the Tides”.

Throughout his 30-year career in the entertainment business, Denroy consistently draws on music and song to fortify mankind’s faith. Blending scripture, Psalms, and words of love while hailing the Most High has become synonymous with the Morgan family name in the music industry. Known for his legendary chartbusting single, I’ll Do Anything for You, and later more hits such as Sweet Tender Love, Happy Feelings, and Africa is Calling.

Denroy Morgan was born in May Pen in Clarendon but left Jamaica in 1965 at the age of 19 and traveled to the United States to become a musician. He created the Black Eagles in New York City 1974 with Devon “Igo Levi” Foster and Llewellyn “Jah T” Breadwood. The Black Eagles won the New York Reggae Music Festival in 1977, beginning Denroy’s rise to fame that continued with I’ll Do Anything and other hits in the early 1980s. Denroy Morgan broke records in 1984 when he signed with RCA Records.  That deal lead to the release of the reggae album Make My Day and marked him as the first reggae artist to be signed to RCA Records.

Denroy Morgan is sometimes hailed as the “king” of spiritual reggae, having created a family legacy of musical superstars who have carried Jamaican music and spirituality around the world. He is reported to have 30 children, 8 of whom have continued their father’s musical passions: Morgan Heritage is the more famous group, superstars in their own right, the group includes Mojo, Lukes, Peter, Grandpa, and Una Morgan. Lesser-known LMS includes Laza, Shy-poo and Miriam Morgan.

After Make My Day, Denroy took a well planned hiatus from recording from 1985 to 1992 and moved between New York and Massachusetts to nurture the musical talents of children who formed Morgan Heritage and LMS (formally known as The Dreads), both of whom were signed to MCA Records in 1992.  His work with the Twelve Tribes of Israel as well as various music events in New York and Massachusetts continued throughout those years.

Denroy Morgan relocated to Brooklyn, NY when his kids were young. His 1981 song I’ll Do Anything for You brings back memories of NYC in the early ’80s:

In 1996 VP Records/71 Records released Denroy Morgan’s Salvation album. Since then he’s been managing, producing, touring, nurturing, and just being Daddy to his progeny groups. Together they have toured throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, Japan, West Africa, and most recently East Africa to Kenya. Denroy continues to tour with Morgan Heritage and has recorded with other reggae stars including Toots & the Maytals.

“I come from Jamaica with the Spirit and the Blood of Ethiopia. In ancient times I was an Israelite. In present times I hail a Christian. Present and future, I hail as a Rastafarian. Long live the Davidic covenant,” Denroy Morgan states.

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Reggae On The Hill will take place in Barbados’ Farley Hill National Park from 11am until 8pm. General admission tickets are on sale for BSD $80 and VIP tickets are also available for BSD $200. The VIP tickets include free food and drinks. You can win free tickets to the 2009 Barbados Reggae Festival from Digicel by becoming their friend on Facebook.

In addition to Beenie Man and dancehall reggae vocalist Buju Banton, confirmed acts include:

• International superstar roots reggae band Morgan Heritage
• Koshens
• Dwayne Stephenson
• Queen Ifrica
• Live Wyah
• Zion Trybe
• KDB
• Buggy
• Red Star Lion
• Ayanna John
• LRG
• Ras Ali
• Hotta Flames
• Foresight
• Peter Coppin & Monstapiece
• Lil Rick
• DMZ
• Jon Doe & Mikey Dredd
• Verseewild
• and local celebrities Trinbagonian Positive

This year’s event promises to be as big as the 2008 Barbados Reggae on the Hill festival.

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Reggae Academy Award winners will be announced on February 24th, 2008 at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston, Jamaica.

Most Popular Artist

• Tarrus Riley
• Queen Ifrica
• Jah Cure
• Beenie Man
• Buju Banton
• Munga
• Busy Signal

Most Popular Song

• She’s Royal (Tarrus Riley)
• Nah Go A Jail (Busy Signal)
• Sticky and Roots (Unknown)

Best Solo Male Vocalist

• Tarrus Riley
• Pressure
• Jah Cure
• I-Octane

Best Solo Female Vocalist

• Queen Ifrica
• Etana
• Cherine Anderson
• Ce’Cile

Best Vocal Group or Duo

• Cherine Anderson and Chuck Fender (Coming Over Tonight)
• DaVille and Sean Paul (On My Mind)
• Morgan Heritage and T.O.K (Unknown)

Best Reggae Album

• Mind Control (Stephen Marley )
• Book Of Life (I Wayne)
• True Reflection (Jah Cure)
• On My Mind (DaVille)

Best Dancehall Album

• Gully Sit’n (Assassin)
• Intoxication (Shaggy)
• Foreva (Wayne Wonder)
• Walk Out (Lady Saw)

Best Music Producer

• Don Corleon
• Stephen McGregor
• Stephen Marley
• Christopher Birch

Best Reggae Compilation

• Strictly The Best Vol 38
• Jamdown Riddim Driven
• Reggae Gold 2007
• One Drop Anthems 2007

Best Reggae Video

• She’s Royal (Tarrus Riley)
• Faithful (Morgan Heritage)
• Stab Vampire (I-Octane)
• We’re Missing You (Kris Kelly)

Best Dancehall Compilation

• Tremor Riddim Driven
• Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems
• Dreaming Riddim Driven
• Heathen Riddim Driven

Best Dancehall Video

• Nah Go A Jail (Busy Signal)
• Church Heathen (Shaggy)
• Back It Up (Beenie Man)
• Love Is Wicked (Brick and Lace)

Best Dancehall Recording

• Conscience (Cham)
• Watch Dem Roll (Sean Paul)
• Nah Go A Jail (Busy Signal)
• One Loaf A Bread (Damian Marley)

Best Dancehall Riddim

• Tremor
• Gearbox
• Power Cut
• Sativa

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Shortly after the Recording Industry Association of Jamaica (RIAJam) announced the formation of the Reggae Academy with members including music producers, vocalists, songwriters, music video producers, media representatives, artist managers and agents, they’ve already organized their star-studded 1st Reggae Academy Awards. RIAJam has been working since it’s inception 4 years ago to put together an international music awards ceremony to recognize achievement in reggae and dancehall music (what, no dub?). Clevie Browne, RIAJam chairman stated that the Reggae Academy Awards objective is to celebrate and recognize creative excellence as determined by people who are active in reggae music today.

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