Shaggy (musician)

For the Insane Clown Posse member, see Shaggy 2 Dope.

Shaggy
Shaggy performing in June 2006
Background information
Birth name	Orville Richard Burrell
Born	(1968-10-22) October 22, 1968 Kingston, Surrey, Jamaica
Origin	Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Reggae, dancehall, hip hop
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, rapper
Years active	1990-present
Labels	EMI, Virgin, MCA, Universal, Big Yard Music Group, Ranch Entertainment
Associated acts	Rayvon, RedFox, Sting international
Website	www.shaggyonline.com

Orville Richard Burrell (born October 22, 1968), better known by his stage name Shaggy, is a Jamaican-American pop singer and rapper. He is known for his hit singles "Boombastic", "It Wasn't Me" and "Angel". He is said to have taken his stage name from his shaggy hair.

Early life

Burrell was born in Kingston, Jamaica. At the age of 18, he and his family moved to the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, New York. In 1987, he took singing courses in Brooklyn and was discovered a year later, while singing in the streets with friends.

Military service

Shaggy during his military service with the United States Marine Corps.

Shaggy during his military service with the United States Marine Corps.

In 1988, Shaggy enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a Field Artillery Cannon Crewman with "I" Battery, 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines, with which he served during the Persian Gulf War. It was during this time that Shaggy perfected his signature singing voice, breaking the constant monotony of running and marching cadences with his flair for inflection. It is also where he got the inspiration for his song "Boombastic".

Music career

1990s

He 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. 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 a remix off his Maxi-Single title "Nice and Lovely". He had further big hits, including "Boombastic" in 1995, the theme tune of a popular Levi's commercial, and sang with Maxi Priest on his Top 20 hit from 1996 "That Girl".

2000–2005

In 2000, Shaggy released the album Hot Shot, which was certified 6x Platinum in the U.S. The album featured the singles "It Wasn't Me" and "Angel", the latter of which was built around two song samples - Merrilee Rush's 1968 hit "Angel of the Morning" (which was remade in 1981 by Juice Newton), and The Steve Miller Band's 1973 hit "The Joker". The album hit number one on the Billboard 200 and U.K. albums chart. However, his 2002 release Lucky Day, and the 2005 album Clothes Drop, failed to match Hot Shot's success, although Lucky Day still went gold. The albums, however, found success in Europe, especially with heavy airplay for the single "Hey Sexy Lady". Shaggy remade 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.

2005–2010

Following the release of Clothes Drop, Shaggy began to increase his number of live performances. In March 2007, he 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 for the rank of Commander.

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" (Persian: "دنیا"). 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, 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.

2010s

In January 2010, "Rise Again", a track featuring Sean Paul, Sean Kingston, Alison Hinds, Shontelle Layne, Edwin Yearwood, Destra Garcia, David Rudder, KesDieffenthaller, Tessanne Chin, Etana & Belo, was released to support victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake which struck on January 12. His collaboration with the Balkan group Sahara (consisting of the Romanian singer Costi Ioniţă and the Bulgarian singer Andrea) and French House DJ Bob Sinclar on a track entitled "I Wanna" was a commercial success, released as a single in March 2010 throughout Europe. Shaggy later performed the track several times during Miami's Winter Music Conference in April 2010. In May 2010 he once again performed before cricket audiences at the ICC T20 World Championships, also providing between play performances.

On July 17, 2010, he performed at the Party FM Meja Jam Concert in Country Fair Entertainment Park, Medford, New York. Later that month, he recorded the song "Target" with Japanese reggae singer lecca, which was released on her album, パワーバタフライ (Power Butterfly). Shaggy also released "For Your Eyez Only", which topped reggae charts across the world.^{[citation needed]} Shaggy recorded the song with fellow Jamaican singer Alaine.

2011

In 2011, Shaggy released the official videos of "For Your Eyez Only", along with the hit singles "Sweet Jamaica", featuring Mr.Vegas and Josie Wales and "Girlz Dem Luv We" featuring Mavado. That same year it was announced that Shaggy would release his first new album in four years. Preceded by the single "Champagne", featuring Sahara, the album was released digitally on January 19, 2011. Titled Shaggy & Friends, the album featured many collaborations, including songs with his long-time collaborators Rikrok and Rayvon. A physical release of the album followed. On July 16, 2011, he launched the album Summer in Kingston which contained his single "Sugarcane". The album was launched at a free party in Kingston, Jamaica, where he released the video for "Sugarcane". The video was premiered globally on MTV. "Sugarcane" went on to become the number 2 best selling reggae song on the Canadian iTunes chart, and number 4 in the United States.^{[citation needed]} Shaggy also collaborated with Apache Indian on the latter's album, Home Run, on a remix of "Chokthere".

2012–present

Shaggy and the Egyptian star Tamer Hosny recorded a song together called "Smile". The music video was filmed in New York City and was released on January 7, 2012. Also Shaggy re-released Summer in Kingston in the form of Summer in Kingston (Lava Edition). Shaggy is working on a new album where all tracks will be produced by Sly and Robbie. Shaggy did a collaboration on a charity single called "World Citizen", which was released on April 5, 2012.

On April 12, Shaggy released on iTunes "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" featuring American female rapper Eve. The song samples the homonymous 1979 hit song by Cyndi Lauper (written by Robert Hazard in 1979 and recorded and released by Cyndi Lauper in 1983). The video for the song was directed by Ras Kassa and released on YouTube on June 14, 2012. Shaggy performed live in Colombo, Sri Lanka on April 28, 2012. Shaggy also has confirmed that a collaboration album with Sly & Robbie will be released in summer 2013.

Shaggy launched his own label, Ranch Entertainment, on June 4, 2012, at a press launch in New York City. He was joined by label mates Rayvon and Red Fox for the launch, which was publicized by Manhattan-based PR firm, Fox Fuse and publicist Rhona Fox. Ranch Entertainment is based in New York and Jamaica.

Shaggy released his new album Rise on September 28, 2012. The album contains nine of the ten tracks from Summer in Kingston, as well as new tracks "Rise", "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (the second single), "Diva", "World Citizen" (first single), "Get Back My Baby" and his single from three years previously "Fly High".

Discography

Main article: Shaggy discography

Studio albums

• 1993: Pure Pleasure
• 1994: Original Doberman
• 1995: Boombastic
• 1997: Midnite Lover
• 2000: Hot Shot
• 2002: Lucky Day
• 2005: Clothes Drop
• 2007: Intoxication
• 2011: Shaggy & Friends
• 2011: Summer in Kingston
• 2012: Rise

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

Year	Nominated work	Award	Result
1996	Boombastic	Best Reggae Album	Won
2002	"It Wasn't Me" featuring Rikrok	Best Pop Collaboration with Vocal	Nominated
2006	Clothes Drop	Best Reggae Album	Nominated
2008	Intoxication	Best Reggae Album	Nominated
2012	Summer In Kingston	Best Reggae Album	Nominated

American Music Awards

Year	Nominated work	Award	Result
2002	Shaggy	Favorite Male Pop/Rock Artist	Nominated
2002	Shaggy	Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist	Nominated
2002	Shaggy	Favorite Internet Artist of the Year	Nominated

External links

• Official website