Dad is still my winner
IF there was one person who would not have missed last Sunday’s staging of the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, it would be fledgling singer Jahazeil Myrie — son of Best Reggae Album nominee Buju Banton.
According to the 23-year-old, he was glued to TV with a bottle of champagne in anticipation of his father’s second hold on the coveted title.
“I really wanted my dad to win and so, not wanting to miss the show, I was quite early, more than an hour before it started. I am not a drinker, but my father means so much to me that I was hoping he would have won and celebrate in splendid style,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
Toots & The Maytals won the category with Got To Be Tough.
“But, big up to Toots. I am still very happy Toots won the Grammy because he is foundation in music and I feel good it went to a Jamaican,” he said.
Toots Hibbert, frontman of Toots and The Maytals, began recording in the 1960s. His music spanned ska, rocksteady and reggae. He died of COVID-19 complications on September 11 last year. He was 77.
Toots and The Maytals’ first Grammy win was 2005 with True Love. Buju Banton also won the category with Before the Dawn in 2011.
In addition to Buju Banton’s Upside Down 2020, this year’s other nominees were Higher Place by Skip Marley, Maxi Priest’s It All Comes Back to Love, and One World by The Wailers.
Jahazeil Myrie said he aspires to win the coveted trophy.
“Just watching the excitement surrounding the Grammy Awards, I too would love to be on that big stage for the world to see me in the future. Winning [the Grammy] would not be for my mon alone, but my father, siblings and Jamaicans here and abroad who believe in our culture. Jamaicans expect a lot from me and I want them to embrace me just as they do to my dad,” he said.
He is currently pushing Keep Strong which was released in January 2021 on the Grinch Records label.
“It is a song which is encouraging the world to keep strong during, not only this COVID-19 crisis, but other problems,” he added.
A graduate of Liberty Academy in Kingston, Jahazeil has recorded more than a dozen songs, including Best Of Me, Love On and At My Door featuring Spragga Benz. He is working on a seven-track EP titled Inter-relation which he hopes to release by year end.
