Spice, Sean Paul, Etana, Jesse Royal Among Nominees For ‘Best Reggae Album’ At Grammy Awards 2022

Queen of Dancehall Spice and Reggae songstress Etana are among the six nominees for the Best Reggae Album Grammy Award in 2022.  Spice was nominated for 10, while Etana earned a nomination for her album Pamoja.

The other nominees are Sean Paul for Live N Livin, Jesse Royal for Royal, Gramps Morgan for Positive Vibration, and American band SOJA with Beauty in the Silence.

It’s the first time in the 36 year history of the Best Reggae Album Award that two women have been nominated simultaneously.  Only five females were previously nominated in the category, namely Koffee, who won in 2020 with her Rapture EP; Rita Marley who was nominated for We Must Carry On in 1991; Sister Carol for Lyrically Potent in 1996; Judy Mowatt for Working Wonders in 1985, and Etana for Reggae Forever in 2018.

In the announcement today, Etana picked up her second nomination for her album Pamoja , which featured Vybz Kartel, Stonebwoy, Damian Marley, Alborosie and more.

As some predicted, Spice gained a nomination for her Shaggy executive-produced 10 , which was her first studio album.  Released by VP Records, 10 included Spice’s biggest hit So Mi Like It and her recent summer hit Go Down Deh, which featured Shaggy and Sean Paul.

Sean Paul’s Live N Livin collaborative album also copped a nomination.  Released under Paul’s Dutty Rock production imprint, the project featured 22 guest appearances including youngbloods Skillibeng, Masicka, and Intence, as well as seasoned hitmakers Buju Banton, Damian Marley, and Busy Signal.

This is the Temperature deejay’s ninth Grammy nomination.  He previously won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for Dutty Rock in 2003, the same year he was nominated for Best New Artist.

Jesse Royal also copped his first nomination for Royal which featured Vybz Kartel, Runkus, Stonebwoy, Protoje and more.   Grammy-winning producer Sean Alaric (responsible for Koffee’s Throne and Teyana Taylor’s Bad) produced over half the album, along with Jesse Royal himself, Natural High, Dretegs, iotosh, Yared “Boomdraw” Lee, Romario Bennett (also known as Runkus), and Wayne Thompson.

Final round voting will now take place between December 6, 2021 and January 5, 2022.   The awards ceremony will return to the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Monday, January 31, 2022.

On April 30 this year, The Recording Academy declared that it had made significant changes to its awards process “to ensure that the GRAMMY Awards rules and guidelines are transparent and equitable”, this after the integrity of the nomination and voting process was questioned by several American stars and even Popcaan, in the aftermath of the 2021 Awards.

Among the changes made by The Academy, were the removal of Nominations Review Committees and a reduction in the number of categories in which voters may vote.

According to the Recording Academy, to be eligible for a GRAMMY, all recordings must have been up for sale commercially via general distribution or made available as a digital recording, either for sale or via a recognized streaming service.  

In addition, for a body of work to be considered an album, it must contain at least five different tracks with a total playing time of 15 minutes or, a total playing time of at least 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement.

The GRAMMY Award is voted on by the Recording Academy’s voting membership, which is comprised of music creators, including artists, producers, songwriters, and engineers.

Toots and the Maytals won the 2021 Grammy for Best Reggae Album at the 63rd Annual Awards, in March this year months after the band’s frontman Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert, died. 

Toots passed in September 2020 at the age of 77, two weeks after Got To Be Tough, was released.   

The group’s album Got To Be Tough, had come out ahead of Skip Marley’s Higher Place, The Wailers’ One World, Buju Banton’s Upside Down 2020 and Maxi Priest’s It All Comes Back To Love.  

This was the band’s sixth Grammy nomination and second win, as they copped the award back in 2005 for their True Love album.

Got To Be Tough was one of two Recording Academy album wins on which Jamaicans had featured, as John Legend’s Bigger Love, had copped the Best R&B Album award, featured a stellar contribution from Reggae princess, Koffee, on the album’s 12th track Don’t Walk Away.  Koffee’s verse appeared to have provided the icing on the cake for the R&B artiste’s 16-track album, which was released in June 2020.

In addition Jamaica’s own Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor produced, not only Don’t Walk Away but also the album’s title track Bigger Love.