Spice, Shenseea, and Sean Paul are amongst the list of Jamaicans nominated at the 2022 Grammy Awards.

Yes, with the recent announcement of the official 64th Annual Grammy Awards nominees, Jamaicans and by extension the Caribbean, have been celebrating as some of Reggae’s and Dancehall’s music top stars have been nominated. And just in case you missed it, Caribbean Entertainment Hub is here to give you the full breakdown of our Jamaican nominees along with their respective categories.

Kicking it off in the ‘Best Reggae Album’ category, this year’s list included the Queen of Dancehall, Spice with her debut album titled ‘TEN’ which was released in August 2021. This is also a history-making moment because it is the first time that a hardcore Female Dancehall artist has been nominated for the Grammy awards.

Spice

Also nominated in this category is Reggae artiste Etana with her second Grammy nomination for her album ‘Pamoja’. This is, however, not Etana’s first time being nominated for a Grammy, as she also created some history in 2018 being the first woman to get a nomination in the ‘Best Reggae Album’ category in more than two decades. At that time she was also the fourth woman to ever get nominated for this Grammy award.

Also, landing his first-ever Grammy nomination is Jesse Royal for his album ‘Royal’, which was released in June 2021. And Sean Paul received his sixth Grammy nomination for his album ‘Live N Livin’. Sean Paul is also a previous Grammy Award winner for his album ‘Dutty Rock’ in 2004. And lastly, Gramps Morgan was nominated for his album ‘Positive Vibration’ which was released in July 2021. Gramps, a previous nominee and winner with his group Morgan Heritage who previously won the award in 2015 for their album ‘Strictly Roots’.

Fun Fact: The winner in this category for 2020 was Reggae’s music newcomer and star, Koffee who made history as the first female and youngest artist to win the award for her album ‘Rapture’.

Moving onto the Jamaican artists and producers who have been nominated for the ‘Album of the Year’ category which includes Shenseea, Beam, Masego, Damian Marley, Buju Banton, and more making them the first Jamaican artiste to be nominated in this category.

Shenseea

These nominations have been made possible after the Recording Academy stated clearly that if an album is up for ‘Album Of The Year’, then all credited featured artists, songwriters of new material, producers, recording engineers, mixers, and mastering engineers who worked on that album are automatically nominated. Previously, the Grammy rule stated that all of these music professionals had to be credited with 33 percent or more of playing time (on the album), in order to be nominated.

Edited: By virtue of the new rules, Shenseea is only nominated for ‘Album Of The Year’ for ‘Donda’.  Her (3) other contributions to Grammy-nominated albums in the genre categories would render her a participant, according to the Grammy guidelines (see below).

1. Kanye West’s- ‘Donda’ for Album Of The Year
2. She is also credited for her songwriting and vocals on ‘OK OK Pt 2′ and ‘Pure Souls’
3. Her collaboration alongside with Jamaican-American singer Masego in the Best Progressive R&B Album with his EP titled Studying Abroad: Extended Stay.
4. And she is also a participant in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category, for Major Lazer Music Is The Weapon (Reloaded) which features her track on ‘Tiny’ alongside Beam.

Other Jamaican artistes and producers making the cut this year include:

1. Busy Signal on the single ‘Sun Comes Up’ alongside JoeBoy, and two-time Grammy nominee Skip Marley on ‘Can’t Take It From Me’.
2.  Beam was also featured on two more tracks, namely ‘Bam Bam’ with French Montana, and ‘Rave de Favela’ with MC Lan and Anitta. Beam also contributed to Justin Bieber’s album ‘Justice’, which received nods for Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album.
3. Buju Banton is also credited on Kanye West’s 27-track set on the love song ‘Believe What I Say’. 
4. Jamaican producer IzyBeats-the beatmaker on Koffee’s international breakout hit song ‘Toast’ and co-produced ‘Silver Tongue Devil’ alongside Corbett and Chris Madine, He also contributed to a second song on the EP titled ‘Yebo/Sema’.
5.  Masego and Jamaican producer J.L.L., whose 2014 beat was sampled on Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ (CLB) album, will both share a part of the victory if the Canadian rapper wins in the Best Rap Album category.
6. In the Best Global Music Album category, Nigerian star WizKid is among five nominees for his album ‘Made In Lagos: Deluxe Edition’.  The project features contributions from Jamaican artists Damian Jr. Gong’ Marley on the song ‘Blessed’, and rising artist Projexx, on the song ‘True Love’ with Tay Iwa.

Sources include https://www.jamaicaobserver.com, https://www.dancehallmag.com,

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