Describing himself as a “strong lobbyist for the music inside and outside Jamaica”, veteran singer Freddie McGregor is nothing but honest about the current state of Jamaica and Jamaica’s music industry. With a career spanning more than 30 years, the singer, affectionately dubbed Di Captain, has probably seen it all and has more than earned [...]
With Rastafari heavily involved in Jamaican popular music, naturally, music will be part of the discussion at the 2013 Rastafari Studies Conference and General Assembly. The conference is under way at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, with the presentations centred around the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre in the Faculty of Arts [...]
Taboo Yardies, a Jamaican film-maker’s documentary on her country’s indifference toward homosexuality, is doing the promotional rounds. T he 77-minute film, produced by Selena Blake, had a screening Monday at the International LGBT Film Festival in Dublin, Ireland. According to a spokesperson for Taboo Yardies, the project “went over very well” with the audience. via [...]
With three successful studio albums under her belt, reggae songbird Etana recently completed her biggest tour of the United States (US). The tour, which was in support of her third album, Better Tomorrow, saw Etana headlining shows in more than 15 states and 24 cities across the US. The tour took Etana from Utah to [...]
The entrée and dessert — New York’s annual West Indian American Day Carnival Parade — is weeks away, but Everybody’s magazine’s Calypso-Soca Festival & Tent is an impressive appetizer leading up the main course. Five nights of concerts at the Tropical Paradise Ballroom, 1367 Utica Ave. (between Farragut Road and Foster Ave.) in East Flatbush, [...]
For the first time since 1966, there will be no Festival or Popular Song Contest. Instead, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, producers of the event, launched a campaign for fans to vote online for their favourite song. Today, the Jamaica Observer publishes the fourth in a six-part series on past competitions. THE year was 1975 [...]
Three of reggae legend Bob Marley’s sons are to take to the stage for this year’s Liverpool International Music Festival. Damian, Stephen and Julian Marley will play Sefton Park on August 25. They will take to the stage as part of The Ghetto Youths International Crew, which will also see performances from Jo Mersa, Black [...]
Ever since Kool Herc brought Jamaican sound system culture to the Bronx and birthed a billion-dollar industry called hip-hop, dancehall reggae has been the ghost in the American urban music machine. From island-flavored beats to yardie slang, Jamaican music has always exerted a profound if under-recognized influence on genres ranging from rap to R&B, rock, [...]
He laughs at the very idea of being a ladies’ favourite and seems genuinely perplexed as to how this happened. But Tarrus Riley can’t deny his huge fan base, garnered thanks to romantic songs including Love’s Contagious, Stay With You and the female empowerment anthem, She’s Royal. And while he appreciates his loyal female following, [...]