Following his Monday Ska style performance of “Come Fly Wid Me” on ABC’s Good Morning America, Shaggy’s “Christmas In The Islands” album the Deluxe Edition has risen to the No. 1 position on the US Reggae iTunes chart.
With 13 studio albums, including the collaborative, Grammy Award-winning 44/876 with Sting, Shaggy continues to be one of the most diverse artists in the world. The Deluxe version was released October 1, 2021 as an addition to the Rae Town native’s 2020 original Christmas In The Islands, with four additional songs: Amazing Christmas (featuring Hannah Brier and produced by Costi), Nothing Like the Holidays, featuring Bunji Garlin, We Three Kings and Silent Night featuring Sting.
When the album was released Shaggy was nominated for a Grammy by was of executive producing Spice’s debut album “10″. At the time he told WMV “It’s my second time being nominated as producer/executive producer.. Last year(2020) it was for the Maxi Priest project (It All Comes Back To Love). I like working with different artists and collaborating…it gets my creative juices flowing…so it’s less about the nomination and more about the creative process,” he said.
Fast forward this year and Shaggy is again nominated for a Grammy. This for for his “Come Fy Wid Me: Sinatra Songbook” produced by Sting.
Like Mariah Carey and her “All I Was For Christmas” is for pop music, Shaggy wants the challenge of ruling the charts in the week of Christmas for reggae with his Christmas project.
“The main thing I wanted to do was to have a body of music that represents our culture during Christmas, with some of our greatest artists. I’m a fan of Mariah Carey’s song and Christmas projects but she doesn’t have any dancehall or reggae albums so mine is done for our culture,” the Angel singer told World Music Views last year.
Watch Shaggy’s Good Morning America performance below:
Elsewhere in reggae chart land, Shaggy’s Best of album, The Boombastic Collection comes in at No. 2, while Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley & The Wailers spends 154 weeks at No. 1. The compilation was first released in May 1984 by Island Records.
“Dutty Classics Collection” by Sean Paul at No. 3, and Stick Figure’s “Wisdom”, “World On Fire” and “Set in Stone” albums at No. 4, 5, and 8 respectively.
UB-40’s Greatest Hits lands at No. 6, followed by Sean Paul‘s triple platinum album “Dutty Rock” at No. 7.
Rebelution’s “Live At Red Rocks” album, occupies the No. 9 position and rounding off the top ten is Koffee‘s Gifted. The album closes out 2022 with the title of being the longest running Billboard Reggae top ten project released this year at 34 weeks.
Alkaline’s latest EP “The Ripple EFFX” did not make the top ten after peaking at No. 1 on the Reggae iTunes chart and selling only 600 units in its first week of release.
