Entertainment

Reggae Music is a genre that transcends all borders and barriers with a fanbase made up of all races and ethnicities. Equally as diverse as the fanbase are the artists that perform the music, so it was only a matter of time before a white group would capture the most coveted award in the genre, the Reggae Grammy Award.

Soldiers Of Jah Army (SOJA) are the winners of 2022 Grammy Award for best reggae album with their title “Beauty in the Silence”.

The third time is the charm for SOJA as the group was nominated twice before but did not walk away as victors.

Five Jamaican were among the six nominees in the Best Reggae Album category. They were Spice, Etana, Sean Paul, Jesse Royal, Gramps Morgan and SOJA.

The fact that the only non-Jamaican in the list of nominees came out as the winner should be a wake-up call to Jamaicans. It has long been said that Jamaica has lost touch with authentic reggae music as younger artists are more drawn to the more lucrative hip hop and rap genres.

Freddie McGregor said Ziggy Marley’s Reggae Grammy Award win is scandalous!

Veteran reggae artist and living legend, Freddie McGregor, knows a thing or two about reggae music and he definitely knows what is and isn’t great music. As far Ziggy Marley winning the 2017 Reggae Grammy Award, Mr. McGregor says it was “scandalous but not surprising”.

Ziggy’s self-titled winning album, Ziggy Marley, is little known within the reggae community and does not contain any great reggae songs but it beat out five other nominees to take the coveted and elusive award, an award that has slipped away from the grasp of many global icons in reggae music.

Greats like Sizzla, Beres Hammond, Chronixx, Dennis Brown, Third World, Gregory Isaacs, Yellowman, Barrington Levy, Marcia Griffiths, Etana, Vybz Kartel, Capleton and McGregor himself are yet to win a Grammy. This year marks the 11th win for the Marleys in the Best Reggae Album category since the awards started in 1985. A few weeks ago, McGregor was strident in his condemnation of the practices of the selection committee for the reggae Grammy. He lashed out at the awards, calling them “an embarrassment of indescribable magnitude to reggae music”.

Reggae Award Nomonations:
Together, Chronixx and Etana received 10 Reggae award nominations

Chronixx, front-runner of the roots-reggae revival, leads the nominees for the International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWMA) set for Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on October 4.

Chronixx, who is known for songs such as Who Knows, Behind Curtain and Smile Jamaica, has received six nominations. He is up for the Bob Marley Entertainer of the Year, Best Male Vocalist, Best Song — Who Knows, Best Album — Dread and Terrible, Best Music Video — Who Knows and Most Cutural/ Educational Entertainer.

His contemporary Protoje is also in the running with four nods for Best Male Vocalist, Most Promising, Best Song — Who Knows, and Best Music Video, also for Who Knows.

Singer Etana also has been nominated for four IRAWMA trophies — Bob Marley Entertainer of the Year, Best Female Vocalist, Best Song — I Rise as well as the Marcus Garvey Humanitarian Award.

Sound Chat Radio Celebrates Ten Years of Entertainment and Community Services

Welcome to the Sound Chat Media Network, home of Sound Chat Radio (SCR), a 24-hour, online medium, purposefully positioned right on the cutting edge of the digital super highway, driven by technology.

Ten years in the making, Sound Chat Radio is the brainchild of Garfield ‘Chin’ Bourne, CEO of Irish & Chin, best known for their hardcore dancehall productions, coast to coast and around the world for the last quarter century!

Considered an entertainment and media visionary, Sound Chat Radio is not the only brand that Bourne has built from scratch, as he is credited with conceptualizing and popularizing other internationally recognized brands in the entertainment space such as World Clash, Reeewind and the renowned Japanese sound system, Mighty Crown.

‘Chin’ as he is affectionately called by colleagues and contemporaries, prides himself on Sound Chat Radio’s unorthodox style of radio, which is extremely vocal, interactive and visible. The very innovative platform which combines radio with TV and vice versa, connects the Jamaican Diaspora with timely and important topics that span; politics, business, sports, health, entertainment and more. Congratulations to Sound Chat Radio!