Shaggy

Shaggy was a Jamaican musician who put a sunny pop sheen on his home country's classic reggae sounds, leading to massive worldwide success. In the United States, he holds the distinction of being a one-hit wonder in two decades, the nineties and the early 2000s. Born Orville Richard Burrell on October 22, 1968 in Kingston, Jamaica, Shaggy took singing lessons as a teenager, and honed his musical voice and persona while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Persian Gulf War. In 1993 he released his debut album, "Pure Pleasure" (1993), which included a number of UK dancehall hits, but unfortunately his sophomore effort, "Original Doberman" (1994), failed to chart. He bounced back quickly, however, with his third album, "Boombastic" (1995), the title track of which was a huge hit in both the U.S. and the UK, earning Shaggy the title of "Mr. Lover Lover." Once again, despite the success of "Boombastic," he failed to keep the momentum going, and his fourth album, "Midnite Lover" (1997), stalled on the charts. Shaggy took his time with his fifth album, crafting a number of big pop gems. His work paid off in spades: "Hot Shot" (2000) would go on to sell over six million copies in the U.S. alone, largely thanks to the ubiquity of its lead single, "It Wasn't Me," a tongue-in-cheek ode to infidelity. During this time, Shaggy did a lot of soundtrack work, making original songs for the films "Scooby-Doo" (2002), "Showtime" (2002), and "Ali G Indahouse" (2002). Though his next album, "Lucky Day" (2002) went gold, it came nowhere near matching the massive success of "Hot Shot." His next two albums, "Clothes Drop" (2005) and "Intoxication" (2007) also failed to chart. In the ensuing years, Shaggy focused more on touring, performing concerts all over the world, on nearly every continent. Eventually he found his way back into the studio, and in 2011 he released two albums, the collaborative effort "Shaggy & Friends" (2011) and a proper solo album, "Summer in Kingston" (2011). A European edition of "Summer in Kingston," which was retitled "Rise" (2012) was released the following year. Following another round of world touring, Shaggy released his eleventh album, "Out of Many, One Music" (2013), in 2013. After devoting the next few years to one-off single collaborations and his live show, Shaggy teamed up with an unlikely musical foil: Sting. The two collaborated on an old school roots reggae album, "44/876" (2018) and toured together throughout the year. Critics were pleasantly surprised by the album, and it won the Grammy for Reggae Album of the Year. Shaggy's next album, "Wah Gwaan?!" (2019), was released in 2019.