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BY KEVIN JACKSON
Observer writer

Thursday, August 06, 2020

Shaggy

SHAGGY is one of three recipients of this year’s Jamaica Reggae Icon Award at the Independence Spectacular.

The event unfolds this afternoon and will be part of a virtual show scheduled to be aired on live television and PBC Jamaica at 4:00 pm.

Shaggy said he is grateful to be considered for the award.

“I’m grateful to receive this honour, especially on a day that celebrates our great country,” Shaggy told the Jamaica Observer.

The other recipients are veteran singers Marcia Griffiths and Ken Boothe.

In a previous interview, Shaggy underscored the need for entertainers to respect their craft.

“You have to realise that this gift that you get is really a bigger purpose than you. I do this (music) because it is what I’m supposed to do. My measure of success will not be on accolades, it wouldn’t be on the amount of records sold nor the amount of Grammys or whatever. It’s going to be on the amount of people’s lives that I touch, and how positive I’ve touched their lives,” he told the Observer.

Shaggy continued, “When you look at an album like Hot Shot, you’re talking 11 people that bought homes and started their lives on that one record that I wrote in my living room.”

He said the ripple effect from an artiste’s success is rewarding.

“When I go on tour, it’s 17 people, that’s 17 water rates, light bills, school fees and mortgages that are being taken care of. We just came off a tour earlier this year, that’s 20,000 people each night and it’s another 100 people who are needed, like ushers, security, riggers, etc. These people have bills also.”

He added, “So if you look at the butterfly effect of it, you might have a person who pretty much sends their kids to college off pretty much what you do and then that kid goes to an Ivy League school and that Ivy League school might bring them to actually finding a cure for cancer.”

Originally from Rae Town in East Kingston, Shaggy (given name Orville Burrell) relocated to New York and served in the US Marine Corps in 1988. He later pursued a music career where he built a following within the tristate area thanks to the underground hit Big Up featuring Rayvon.

It wasn’t until 1993 that he scored a global hit with his cover of Oh Carolina, which was featured in the film Sliver. It lead to the release of his debut album Pure Pleasure.

Since then, Shaggy has scored several hits on the international charts. He has racked up 8 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in America, two of which have topped the chart, It Wasn’t Me (with Rik Rok) and Angel (with Rayvon).

He has had major success in the United Kingdom where he scored 18 charted titles, four of which have reached number one on the British pop charts.

His ground-breaking album Hot Shot, released in 2000, was certified Diamond for sales of more than six million copies in the United States.

He won the Best Reggae Album Award at the Grammys with Boombastic (1996) and 44/876 with Sting (2019). In the United Kingdom, he won the Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist in 2002.

In 2007, Shaggy was awarded the Jamaican Order of Distinction with the rank of Commander.