Wednesday’s news of a nomination for Best Reggae Album was bittersweet for second-time nominee Julian Marley.

One of the eleven children born to reggae king Bob Marley, Julian has been nominated for his latest project As I Am. He was previously nominated for the reggae Grammy back in 2009 for his album Awake. He is yet to win the coveted award.

However, while he is pleased that his latest body of work has been recognised by the members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organisation which organises and hands out the yearly awards for excellence in music, Marley is still overcome with sadness and left in a pensive mood following the death of his 11-year-old daughter, who succumbed to cancer in June this year.

Marley was about to catch a flight to Jamaica on Wednesday when word came that he was among this year’s nominees. While he admitted that it feels good to be recognised again, the trip to Jamaica had a more significant meaning. He was coming to Jamaica to commemorate what would have been his daughter’s 12th birthday, which was yesterday (November 21).

“We were at the airport when I got the news that it was nominated. I am a big man so excitement for me is not giggles, but a really special feeling came over me and it felt good to know that we have been recognised in this way. The response of the fans has been really great and they have really taken to this piece of work, so I just have to give thanks and praise,” said the 44-year old, who was born in England to a British mother, Lucy Pounder.

Once he landed in Jamaica on Wednesday, Marley made and immediate pilgrimage to Nine Miles in St Ann, the birthplace, and final resting place of his father, where he observed his late daughter’s birthday.

“It is so hard to lose any of your children. But that has created in me a fire, a movement to seek the funding and fight this thing called cancer. My little daughter had brain cancer. There is this plant called the herb, and we have found that it works miracles. Her death has sent me into research because we can’t take life for granted. Just to realise that 40 years after my father died from cancer the disease is back in my family and took my daughter. The leaders of the world are spending billions on nuclear weapons, yet researchers can’t even get a small percentage of this to develop a cure. It seems somebody is more concerned with keeping people sick rather than finding a cure,” Marley told the Jamaica Observer.

Even this now-Grammy-nominated album comes with so much memories of his daughter.

“ As I Am has really come with trials and tribulations. Just at the time we were finishing and preparing to release what when we found out she was sick. So she had been listening to the tracks all along. It was a very long road but it was also special as she had her favourites. So this will always stand out as the body of work I was preparing during those difficult times,” he shared.

He described As I Am, which was released at the top of this year, as being different from his other Grammy-nominated album, Awake.

“The difference with this one really reflects my growth, it has been 10 years so the inspirations are different for this one. As I Am reflects my appreciation for a wide variety of music and this new vibration comes across in the melodies and lyrics… it’s really how and what I’m thinking about at this time and it all comes forth in the music,” Marley noted.

Marley is currently preparing to perform alongside his brothers on the Welcome to Jamrock cruise, which sails from December 9 to 14, aboard the vessel Independence Of The Seas. The cruise leaves from Fort Lauderdale sailing to Ocho Rios and Falmouth, before returning to Fort Lauderdale.