Jimmy Cliff, actor, music innovator, singer, songwriter, music producer, businessman, and much more... Jimmy is a Jamaican ska and reggae singer, musician, and actor. He is the only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences.
With a legacy stretching back nearly 50 years, the Honourable Jimmy Cliff is still standing as one of the prime movers and continuing shapers of modern music. With a catalog that ranks among the most influential in global culture, Cliff remains a forceful voice of power and conscience, creating new music as vital and vibrant as ever.
He is best known among mainstream audiences for songs such as "Sitting in Limbo" "You Can Get It If You Really Want" and "Many Rivers to Cross" from the soundtrack to The Harder They Come, which helped popularize reggae across the world; and his covers of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" and Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" from the film Cool Runnings. Outside of the reggae world, he is probably best known for his film appearance in The Harder They Come. Jimmy Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
Toots & The Maytals Universally praised, hits such as "Do The Reggay" (widely acknowledged as the first song ever to feature the word 'Reggae'), "Pressure Drop", "54-46 That's My Number", "Sweet and Dandy", "Monkey Man", "Funky Kingston" and "Reggae Got Soul" would come to define the genre and influence countless artists; The Specials, The Clash & Amy Winehouse are just a few artists who have covered songs by the group. Toots & The Maytals: Having toured in recent years with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Los Lonely Boys, 2005 saw Toots and The Maytals win a Grammy award for 'Best Reggae Album' with 'True Love', an album consisting of re-recorded versions of their classics alongside legendary musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards, amongst others. Anyone who saw Toots & The Maytals' stunning televised performance at last year's Glastonbury Festival – not to mention the BBC's documentary on the group, as part of the acclaimed Reggae Britannia season in February 2011, will testify that the forthcoming tour is a chance to see one of music's true greats in action. On the eve of announcing the tour, Toots said from his home in Jamaica, "Everybody knows the UK is like a second home to me, so I'm looking forward to seeing all my old friends and making some new ones on this very special anniversary tour."
