Jah Cure, Morgan Heritage gets Grammy nod

Jah Cure and Morgan Heritage are among five nominees announced for the Reggae category of the 2016 Grammy Awards on Monday.

Jah Cure's The Cure album is up for the award along with Morgan Heritage's Strickly Roots, Luciano's Zion Awake, Barrington Levy's Acousticalevy and Rocky Dawuni's Branches of the Same Tree.

Jah Cure, who produced the album under his own label, recently told the media that he expected a Grammy nomination. He also encouraged other reggae artistes to make music for a wider audience.

"I deliberately told myself that I have to make a step to the next level, and if I don't achieve that in this album, it means I'm going backwards. We are holding strong on the chart. Local artistes are not staying on the charts for more than three weeks. I looked into it and said I'm gonna make a mixture of fusion music so that people across the world can relate," Jah Cure said.

The members of the Morgan Heritage reggae band had signalled that they were going to pursue solo careers in 2008. However, having worked out their differences, the family-oriented band teamed up once again and the decision paid off. With tears, Gramps Morgan told The STAR the band was in celebration mode.

"I have been in tears all morning. We have been celebrating because it's our first nomination, and being in Jamaica while we got this news means so much more. To win with our own label CTBC Music group is just overwhelming. There are so much emotions and I cannot stop crying," Gramps Morgan said.

Luciano and Barrington Levy have been relatively quiet on the local scene and did not have much success on the reggae Billboard chart as did Morgan Heritage and Jah Cure. However, their strong presence on charts in Europe and the US ensured their place on this year's nomination list.

The final person on the reggae nomination list, Rocky Dawuni, is seldom played in Jamaica. The artiste who hails from Ghana currently resides in the US and released his Grammy-nominated debut effort in March.