Shaggy (musician)
Orville Richard Burrell CD (born 22 October 1968),[1] better known by his stage name Shaggy, is a Jamaican-born[2] reggae musician, singer and deejay who scored hits with the songs "It Wasn't Me", "Boombastic", "In the Summertime", "Oh Carolina", and "Angel". He has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards, winning twice for Best Reggae Album with Boombastic in 1996 and 44/876 with Sting in 2019, and has won the Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist in 2002.
Shaggy
- Jamaica
- United States
- Singer
- deejay
- rapper
- songwriter
1992–present
5, including Robb Banks
Vocals
In 2007, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Distinction with the rank of Commander. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Brown University.[3]
Career[edit]
1990s[edit]
Shaggy decided to pursue his music career and his first hit in 1993, "Oh Carolina", was a dancehall re-make of a ska hit by the Folkes Brothers, which appeared in the film Sliver.[1] The same year, Shaggy appeared on Kenny Dope's hip hop album The Unreleased Project. He worked together with producers such as Sting International, Don One, Lloyd 'Spiderman' Campbell, Robert Livingston and Frankie Cutlass on the Maxi-Single title "Nice and Lovely" Hip Hop Remix. He had further big hits, including "Boombastic" in 1995,[1] the theme tune of a popular Levi's commercial, and sang with Maxi Priest on his Top 20 hit from 1996, "That Girl".[8]
Hot Shot (2000)[edit]
In 1999, Shaggy was dropped by Virgin, who felt he was unlikely to release another song as successful as 1995's "Boombastic".[9] He would sign with MCA Records to release the album Hot Shot, the following year. The album featured the smash hit singles "It Wasn't Me" and "Angel", the latter of which was built around two song samples – Chip Taylor's song "Angel of the Morning" (which released by Merrilee Rush in 1968 and covered in 1981 by Juice Newton), and The Steve Miller Band's 1973 hit "The Joker". Both songs topped the Billboard Hot 100 and saw similar success worldwide, reaching number one in the UK, Ireland, Scotland and France, among others.[1] Female artist Lady Saw (aka Marion Hall) did an answer record to It Wasn't Me ("Son of a Bit@h") that also saw chart action. Hot Shot debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and would go on to be certified 8x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as well as achieving platinum or multi-platinum status in a number of other countries, and ranking as the second most successful album of 2001 on the Billboard Year-End charts.
In 2001 Shaggy was selected to perform with Rayvon and Rikrok at Michael Jackson's 30th anniversary, performing the songs "Angel" and "It Wasn't Me" from Hot Shot.
Further releases (2002–2009)[edit]
Over the course of his next two albums, Shaggy saw his popularity decline in the United States. In October 2002, Shaggy released his second album for MCA, Lucky Day. While the album went on to sell 352,000 copies in the United States and become certified Gold by the RIAA,[10] it was considered a sales disappointment in contrast to those of Hot Shot.[11] MCA, who had been banking on the album's success to get the label through a poor financial year, subsequently went under, and was absorbed into sister label Geffen Records in July 2003.[11][12] Shaggy's only album on Geffen, 2005's Clothes Drop, was even less of a success, only selling 40,000 copies, and he parted ways with the label the following year.[13]
Despite this, both albums were more successful internationally.[13] Lucky Day was more successful in Europe, especially with heavy airplay for the single "Hey Sexy Lady". Shaggy re-made the Scooby-Doo theme song on the soundtrack titled "Shaggy, Where Are You?" Shaggy also recorded the theme for the 2002 movie Showtime. Shaggy's last top 40 single in the United States was "Angel" from the album Hot Shot. On March 11, 2002, Shaggy and Ali G released "Me Julie" from the soundtrack to the film Ali G Indahouse. The song sold 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom, as stated by the Official Charts Company. It spent 14 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number two.[14]
Shaggy was featured on the album True Love by Toots and the Maytals, which won the Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Reggae Album, and showcased many notable musicians including Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Trey Anastasio, Gwen Stefani / No Doubt, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, Manu Chao, The Roots, Ryan Adams, Keith Richards, Toots Hibbert, Paul Douglas, Jackie Jackson, Ken Boothe, and The Skatalites.[15]
Following the release of Clothes Drop, Shaggy began to increase his number of live performances. In 2006, he was a featured artist on Japanese-American singer Ai's song "Famous" alongside Turkish singer Yalın from her album, What's Goin' On Ai. The trio performed "Famous" in Los Angeles in 2008.[16] In March 2007, Shaggy performed the official song of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, titled "The Game of Love and Unity", alongside Bajan entertainer Rupee and Trinidadian soca artist Fay-Ann Lyons, at the opening ceremony of the tournament, held at The Greenfield Stadium, Trelawny, Jamaica. Later that year, he left Universal Music and released his latest album, Intoxication under his own label, Big Yard Records, with distribution rights by VP Records. In August 2007, he joined Cyndi Lauper live on stage in Singapore for the Sonnet Music Festival, where they performed "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" together. In October 2007, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Distinction with the rank of Commander.[17]
In January 2008, he completed a six-date arena tour with Belgian singer Natalia. He later performed with band En Vogue in Antwerp, to a crowd of 78,000 people. Shaggy also collaborated with Arash in the song "Donya" (Arabic & Persian: "دنیا", meaning "The World"). In April 2008, Shaggy was chosen to record the official anthem for the Mascots (Trix and Flix) of the Euro 2008 football tournament held in Austria and Switzerland. The song, "Feel the Rush", topped charts in most of Europe. In June 2008, a live DVD of his concert material was released under the name Shaggy – Live. In July 2008, he appeared on VH1's "I Love the New Millennium", talking about his video "It Wasn't Me". In August 2008, he performed live at the Dar es Salaam festival, to mark the Zain Global Brand launch in Tanzania. The concert was held at the Leaders Club. In December 2008, Intoxication was nominated for Best Reggae Album at the 51st Grammy Awards.
In May 2009, Shaggy performed at the closing ceremony of the 2009 IPL tournament held in South Africa. He also performed at the opening ceremony of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 in the same month, held in Bangalore, India. In August 2009, he performed live at the Ottawa Reggae Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Here he revealed plans for a new single, "Fading Away", which featured Kevin Rudolf and Lil Jon. He later cancelled this release in favour of "Fly High", a track featuring Gary Pine, which was released on December 5. Shaggy was also invited to perform at the Festival Creole, a festival held every year from November 28 to December 6 in Mauritius.