The Recording Academy have revealed the nominees for the best reggae album at the 64th GRAMMY Awards show. Six reggae albums made it to the final round and the winner will be awarded on January 31st, 2022, in Los Angeles.
The best album nominees are Etana with her album ‘Pamoja’ on the Freemind Music label, Gramps Morgan ‘Positive Vibration’ Halo Entertainment Group, Sean Paul—‘Live N Living’—Dutty Rock Productions, Jesse Royal—‘Royal’ –Easy Star Records, Soja—‘Beauty in Silence’—ATO Records.
‘Pamoja’ is Etana’s second Grammy nomination. She was first nominated in 2019 for her album ‘Reggae Forever’. ‘Pamoja’ was released on June 25 and has 15 tracks.
Gramps Morgan is a member of Morgan Heritage which won the Best Reggae Album Grammy in 2016 for ‘Strictly Roots’. ‘Positive Vibrations’ is Gramps’ first solo nomination. It has 15 tracks and was released via Halo Entertainment on July 23.
‘Live N Livin’ is Sean Paul’s sixth nomination. He won in 2004 for the multi-platinum ‘Dutty Rock’ while his previous nominations were for ‘The Trinity’ (2006), ‘Imperial Blaze’ (2010), ‘Tomahawk Technique’ (2013) and ‘Full Frequency’ (2015). ‘Live N Livin’ peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart in March. The album features collaborations with Bugle, Chi Ching Ching, Masicka, Govana, Serani, Buju Banton, Agent Sasco, Damian Marley, Mavado, Stonebwoy, Masicka and Skillibeng, among others.
‘Beauty in the Silence’ is the third nomination for SOJA, one of the top-selling reggae acts in North America. Previous nods were for ‘Live in Virginia’ in 2017 and ‘Amid the Noise and The Haste’ in 2015. ‘Beauty in the Silence’ was released September 13 by ATO Records.
‘Royal’ is Jesse Royal’s first nomination. The album was released June 4 by New York-based Easy Star Records, the 14-track set has collaborations with Vybz Kartel, Protoje, Stonebwoy, Runkus, Samory-I and Kumar.
‘Ten’ is Spice’s first full-length album. It was released by VP Records on August 6 and peaked at number six on the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart. ‘Ten’ was executive-produced by Shaggy, who also contributed as a producer, along with Dwayne “Supa Dups” Chin-Quee, Stephen McGregor and Tony Kelly.
To be eligible for nominations for the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, recordings must be released between Sept. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. Recordings must be for sale commercially via general distribution or made available as a digital recording, either for sale or via a recognized streaming service.
The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on January 31, 2022
