(For this special Mother’s Day celebration during the year of Jamaica 60, the Entertainment Desk is featuring some of the women who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of music and culture) The story of VP Records is one defined...
Name and face recognition are two things that BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ and presenter Seani B enjoys in Jamaica, where his respect is large within the reggae and dancehall community. When Seani B is in the island and calls on an artiste, he or she shows...
Under the stars and an almost full moon, Jamaicans representing every sector of society joined Prime Minister Andrew Holness on the lawns of Jamaica House last Wednesday evening as he officially launched the Jamaica 60 celebrations. Also present...
News of the death of Fitzroy ‘Bunny Diamond’ Simpson of reggae trio, the Mighty Diamonds, on April 1, considered April Fool’s Day, sounded like a joke. But it was all too real. It was only three days before, on the night of Tuesday, March 29, that...
It has taken Bianca Anderson two years to arrive at a place where she can feel comfortable talking about her father, veteran reggae singer and prolific songwriter Keith ‘Bob Andy’ Anderson. A ‘Daddy’s girl’, who has cherished memories of her lunch...
Nestled in a quiet cul-de-sac with the word ‘Legend’ and the letters’ DM’ boldly inscribed on the gate is the house where pioneering ska and rocksteady star, Derrick Morgan, resides in Clarendon. By design, the road is named Derrick Morgan Close....
When up-and-coming singer Knixx Taylor met saxophonist extraordinaire Dean Fraser at the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) Awards launch at the end of February, he told her that her talent was giving him some strong Koffee vibes....
Optimistic is how Richard Delano Forbes Jr, the man at the helm of Phase Three, is feeling about the creative industry as it emerges out of the doldrums brought on by the pandemic, and he is ready to play his part in its rebuilding. Forbes’ gaze is...
Rastafarian reggae singer, Denroy Morgan, father of 30 biological children, grandfather to 104 and great-grandfather of 15, exuded greatness of biblical proportions. Little wonder that he was known as a patriarch, a term that has its genesis in the...
History was created inside the National Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday when reggae artiste Sizzla Kalonji lived the words of his now-classic song, Rise to the Occasion, as he was expertly accompanied, for the first time ever, by a 35-piece...
Singer, Romain Virgo, readily admits that he never had any intention of becoming a vlogger, a project which sees him generously sharing a slice of his life each week with his fans, who are dubbed ‘Virgonation’. However, not only is he enjoying it...
It was a grand celebration of everything reggae – the music, Reggae Month, Bob Marley, Bunny Rugs, Dennis Brown – in the City of Hollywood in Florida last Sunday. Reggae band Third World was even presented with the Key to the City, prompting...
A quick scroll through the Instagram page of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kingston, Kenneth Richards, says a lot about the measure of the man. From pictures of him smiling with parishioners; cutting his birthday cake with his mother, Holdroyd...
Members of the entertainment, culture, and creative industries have wasted no time in submitting their applications for a share of the $90 million special support package announced on December 18 by Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and...
Last Tuesday, December 21, marked 33 years since Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone on board, and it is a catastrophe that resounds with several Jamaican artistes and musicians who were booked to travel on that...
Wednesday, December 8, 2021, closed the chapter on an era in reggae music brought to life by the wickedest drum-and-bass duo in history – Sly and Robbie. On that day, Robbie Shakespeare, one half of the dynamic duo, took his final breath, and as a...
The final round of voting, which will determine the recipients of the annual Grammy Awards, opened on December 6, and Grammy-nominated producer Cristy Barber is ready to go. “There is no better art to have in your home than a Grammy,” she tells The...
In Rastafari, the touching of the ‘groun’ signifies the unification of the body and the Earth, and when the element of rain is added to that synergy, the showers are hailed as blessings. For that reason, the rain did not mark the end of the...
The magic of Disney and Christmas have merged seamlessly to thrust award-winning Jamaican couturier, Raxann Chin, into a mystical realm – peopled with elves and other mythical creatures – and transform one of her dreams into reality. The founder of...
“It’s nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice,” DJ Tiger told The Sunday Gleaner, casually reeling off the lyrics in much the same tone and inflexion with which his real fans had become accustomed. Most importantly, there was just...
Singer Nadine Sutherland and dancehall culture have found their way into a book celebrating the rise of Kamala Devi Harris – the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants – along her journey to becoming the highest-ranking woman in the United...
On Friday morning, Dancehall Queen Spice showed that she clearly knew the assignment. She put her artiste profile on pause, and Grace Hamilton, the company CEO, walked through like a champion – wearing a Grace Noir top, of course – and delivered a...
One of the concerns of award-winning, Jamaica-born film-maker Roy T. Anderson is that “our stories were not being told properly”. Always possessing a curious mind and with a goal to “give justice to our people”, Anderson has brought to life the...
“It’s not just in the music industry; it is everywhere. It is in corporate; it is in the Church, ‘Hollyweird’, uptown, the ghetto. It permeates every area of life. This culture is rape culture! The music industry is a representation of society, so...
