Jimmy Cliff, pioneer and legend of reggae, dies

BarcelonaMusician and actor Jimmy Cliff, one of the first major international stars of reggae music, has died at the age of 81 from pneumonia, as announced "with profound sadness" by his wife, Latifa Chambers, on social media: "To all his fans around the world: your support was his strength throughout his life."

Topics such as Many rivers too cross –covered by Annie Lennox, UB40 and Cher, among other artists–, Wonderful world, beautiful people and, above all, You can get it if you really want They helped spread reggae music to Western audiences in its most joyful and upbeat form. Their starring role in the 1972 Jamaican crime drama The harder they come (Come what may.(in its Spanish premiere) cemented Cliff's international fame, eventually making him a kind of reggae icon. He is one of the few musicians who, along with Bob Marley, received the Jamaican Order of Merit, and the current Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, has called him a "cultural giant." "His music brought the heart of our nation to the whole world," Holness said.

Born in 1944 in Saint James, Jamaica, his musical career began to take shape in the early 1960s thanks to his collaborations with producer Leslie Kong, one of the key producers of reggae music. Two key factors contributed to Cliff's rise to stardom: signing with Island Records, Bob Marley's label, and moving to London, where he experienced racism firsthand, but also success and popularity: in 1969, Wonderful world, beautiful people It became their first hit on the UK charts. It was the first in a series of achievements that popularized Jamaican rhythms among British youth.

The brightness of their music was not incompatible with lyrics of a more than explicit political stance in songs like Vietnam, from 1970, which Bob Dylan described as "the greatest protest song I've ever heard." Other important songs from that period included his cover of Cat Stevens's Wild world and the theme itself Trapped, which Bruce Springsteen popularized in the 80s by performing it in his concerts and on the charity album We are the world

Cliff was already a star when director Perry Henzell cast him to star in the Jamaican gangster film The harder they comeIt made a certain amount of sense: it was the story of a reggae singer who arrives in Kingston to make it big in the music business and ends up embroiled in criminal activity; in other words, an alternate version of what Cliff's own life might have been like. The film, and of course the soundtrack featuring tracks by Cliff himself, The Maytals, and Desmond Dekker, among other artists, were key to popularizing reggae worldwide.

Over the following decades, Cliff collaborated with all sorts of artists, from the Rolling Stones to Wyclef Jean, Sting, and Tim Armstrong, the singer of the punk band Rancid, with whom he recorded in 2012 Rebirthwhich won the Grammy for best reggae album. But his last big popular hit was surely And can see clearly now, an expansive and catchy version of a Johnny Nash song that Cliff recorded for the soundtrack of the endearing sports comedy Chosen for victory, from 1993.