{"id":15986,"date":"2025-11-24T17:33:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugandaupdatenews.com\/?p=15986"},"modified":"2025-11-24T17:33:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:33:32","slug":"reggae-legend-jimmy-cliff-dies-aged-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/reggae-legend-jimmy-cliff-dies-aged-81\/","title":{"rendered":"Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff dies, aged 81"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jimmy Cliff, one of the most prominent and beloved proponents of reggae music, has died at the age of 81.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A star since the 1960s, he helped to bring the sound of Jamaica to a global audience through hits such as Wonderful World, Beautiful People and You Can Get It If You Really Want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His lead role as a gun-toting rebel in the 1972 crime drama The Harder They Come is a cornerstone of Jamaican cinema, and was attributed as the movie that brought reggae to America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cliff’s wife, Latifa Chambers, announced his death via a statement on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia,” she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her message was also signed by their children, Lilty and Aken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born James Chambers in 1944, Cliff grew up as the eighth of nine children in abject poverty in the parish of St. James, Jamaica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed with a sweet, mellifluous voice, he began singing at his local church at the age of six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was inspired to write his own material when he heard ska pioneer Derrick Morgan on the radio – and asked his woodwork teacher how one might go about composing their own song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe told me, \u2018You just write it!\u2019\u201c he told Mojo magazine.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dSo I went ahead and\u2026 wrote a song called I Need A Fianc\u00e9e, another called Sob Sob and I made a guitar out of bamboo to accompany myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time he was 14, he’d moved to Kingston and adopted the surname Cliff to express the heights he intended on reaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recorded a handful of singles before topping the Jamaican charts with his own composition, Hurricane Hattie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1965, he relocated to London to work with Island Records – later the home of Bob Marley – but the label’s attempts to make his sound palatable to rock audiences were initially unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He eventually struck gold with the 1969 single Wonderful World, Beautiful People – an upbeat, feelgood anthem; and the more politically-charged Vietnam, which Bob Dylan called “the best protest song ever written”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its lyric tells the story of a young soldier who writes from the war, promising his mother he’ll be home soon; only for her to receive a telegram the next day, informing her of his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cliff reflected on the song in 1986, telling reggae archivist Roger Steffens: “The essence of my music is struggle. What gives it the icing is the hope of love.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The musician became an international star with The Harder They Come, expressly written for the movie of the same name, in which he played Ivan Martin, a young man trying to break into Jamaica’s corrupt music industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The film opened the door for Jamaica,” Cliff recalled. “It said, ‘This is where this music comes from.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cliff contributed four songs to the soundtrack, including the gospel hymn Many Rivers To Cross, which reflected his early days as a struggling artist in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was still in my teens,” he later recalled. “I came full of vigour: I’m going to make it, I’m going to be up there with the Beatles and the Stones.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And it wasn’t really going like that, I was touring clubs, not breaking through. I was struggling, with work, life, my identity. I couldn’t find my place. Frustration fuelled the song.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the film and its soundtrack won him international acclaim. Rolling Stone magazine even named it one of their top 500 albums of all time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 1980s, he collaborated with the Rolling Stones on their Dirty Work album, and he returned to the US charts in 1993 with his cover of I Can See Clearly Now, from the soundtrack for Cool Runnings, which followed the escapades of Jamaica’s bobsled team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His other recordings included the Grammy Award-winning albums Cliff Hanger (1985) and Rebirth (2012), a nostalgic return to form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cliff entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, calling it “a great thrill and an honour”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inducting him, Fugees star Wyclef Jean said he’d been inspired by Cliff’s success as a young boy growing up in Haiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When we saw Jimmy Cliff, we saw ourselves,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cliff continued to tour late into his life, playing Glastonbury’s legends slot in 2003; and winning over a new generation of fans at the 2010 Coachella Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His contributions to Jamaican music and culture were recognised in October 2003 when he was awarded the country’s prestigious Order of Merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the singer said his connection to fans was more important than any of the other honours bestowed upon him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to US radio station NPR in 2012<\/a>, he reflected: “When someone comes up to me and says, ‘I was a dropout in school and I heard your song You Can Get It If You Really Want, and that song made me go back to school, and now I am a teacher and I use your song with my students’ – that, for me, is a big success.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor;msserwanga@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Cliff, one of the most prominent and beloved proponents of reggae music, has died at the age of 81.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/c6338870-c92e-11f0-a892-01d657345866.jpg.webp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7427,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/meet-the-3-men-who-killed-lucky-dube-15-years-ago-why-they-killed-him-and-what-was-done-to-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":15986,"position":0},"title":"Meet The 3 Men Who Killed Lucky Dube 15 Years Ago, Why They Killed Him and What Was Done To Them","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"November 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"He was the biggest selling reggae artist of South Africa. 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