From his early years listening to Bob Marley, Buju Banton and Garnet Silk, Surinamese singer Jah Nelson has yearned to make contact with Jamaica, the mecca of reggae music.

The roots artiste recently made his debut at Kingston Night Market then on April 3 he performed on ‘Music Is The Rod’, a show at Footprints, in New Kingston.

“It is a great feeling, actually a dream come true,” said Jah Nelson in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

Jah Nelson (real name Agita Nel) is also in Jamaica promoting his latest songs Name of Jah, Africa, and How Long.

Those tracks have received steady rotation in his homeland, particularly the capital Paramaribo.

“Reggae is a big thing in Suriname; when you keep a reggae show everybody come out,” said Jah Nelson.

The dreadlocked artiste has been playing and recording music since the late 1990s, working with various bands in Paramaribo. Born in the remote town of Brokopondo, he began singing at age seven, encouraged by his grandfather.

A turning point in Jah Nelson’s career came in 2002 when he formed Jah Feeling, a group that performed reggae and dancehall.

“With Jah Feeling, I really started making reggae music. At that time, we also performed at an international concert in Suriname with a Jamaican reggae band, and a gentleman [Guno Ravenberg] came to me and said, ‘You have to go to Jamaica to make your music there. You will succeed, for sure, you have talent,’ ” he recalled.