The Recording Academy has announced the 2022 Grammy nominations for the highly anticipated Best Reggae Album category.
The 64th Grammy Awards’ Best Reggae Album nominees are Spice, Etana, Sean Paul, Jesse Royal, Gramps Morgan, and SOJA.
The Recording Academy’s youtube channel has revealed six finalists for this year’s Grammy Awards instead of the usual five.
Dancehall queen Spice gained a nomination for her debut album titled ’10’.
The long-awaited compilation, which was produced by Sean Paul and released by VP Records in August, came after a decade-long wait and a tumultuous relationship between herself and label VP Records.
’10’ contains 15 tracks, including Spice’s biggest hit “So Mi Like It” and her recent summer hit “Go Down Deh,” featuring Shaggy and Sean Paul.
Dancehall superstar Sean Paul’s copped his ninth nomination with his collaborative album, “Live N Livin,” which was released under his Dutty Rock production imprint.
The project features a slew of guest appearances, including Buju Banton, Damian Marley, Busy Signal, Masicka, Skillibeng, and Intence. The album peaked at number nine on the Billboard Reggae Chart.
Sean Paul has won the Grammy Award once in the same category for Dutty Rock in 2004, the same year he was nominated for Best New Artist.
Reggae artiste Etana acquired her second nomination for her album titled Pamoja, which featured Vybz Kartel, Stonebwoy, Damian Marley, Alborosie, and more.
In 2018, with her “Reggae Forever” album, she became the first woman to get a nomination in the Best Reggae Album category in more than two decades. At that time, she was the fourth woman ever to get nominated for a Grammy award. “Pamoja” is Etana’s eighth album.
Jesse Royal landed his first nomination for his album “Royal,” which features Vybz Kartel, Stonebwoy, Protoje, Runkus, and more.
More than half of the album was produced by Grammy-winning producer Sean Alaric (responsible for Koffee‘s Throne and Teyana Taylor’s Bad), along with Jesse Royal himself, Natural High, Dretegs, iotosh, Yared Boomdraw Lee, Romario Bennett (also known as Runkus), and Wayne Thompson.
Gramps Morgan, a member of Grammy Award-winning reggae band Morgan Heritage, was nominated for his solo project, “Positive Vibration.”
The album is a 15 track compilation released in July and features acts including Shaggy, his son Jemere Morgan and India Arie.
Virginia-based reggae group, SOJA, got the nod with their album “Beauty in Silence.”
The 64th Annual Grammy Awards recognizes the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the year running from September 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021.
The event will be held on January 31, 2022.