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Shaggy

2000s & 2010s Stars

known for

Two-time Grammy-winning singer and one of dancehall's biggest global crossover stars, known for hits including "Boombastic," "It Wasn't Me," and "Angel."

record

Birth name
Orville Richard Burrell
Born
October 22, 1968, Kingston, Jamaica

Full biography

Orville Burrell grew up in central Kingston before emigrating at eighteen to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, where his mother worked as a medical secretary. His stage name referenced his long hair, evoking the Scooby-Doo cartoon character. In 1988, he served in the United States Marine Corps as a field artilleryman, including deployment during the Gulf War, before returning to pursue music seriously.

He broke through commercially in the early 1990s with "Oh Carolina" and achieved international superstardom with 1995's Boombastic, whose title track won him his first Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. He later scored one of the best-selling singles of the era with "It Wasn't Me" in 2000, cementing his place as one of the most commercially successful Jamaican artists of all time.

Shaggy has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards, winning a second in 2019 for Best Reggae Album with 44/876, a collaborative album with Sting. Beyond music, he built a long-running philanthropic partnership through the Shaggy Make a Difference Foundation, which has raised several hundred million Jamaican dollars for the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston since 2009, funding equipment purchases for the facility rather than direct cash donations.

He has remained a prominent figure in both dancehall and mainstream pop for over three decades, continuing to record, tour, and host his annual Shaggy and Friends benefit concert in support of children's healthcare in Jamaica.

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