Shaggy

Shaggy, who took his stage name from the 'Scooby-Doo' character, is a Jamaican singer best known for his crossover from dancehall to mainstream pop. When his family moved from Jamaica to the US, he was able to enjoy the American commercial market first hand. He served in the first Gulf War as a United States Marine where he found inspiration for his US breakthrough single 'Boombastic'. The 2001 singles 'Angel' and 'It Wasn't Me' received considerable airplay in the UK and Shaggy's subsequent album 'Hot Shot' reached number one on both the Billboard and UK Album Charts.

'Lucky Day' (2002) and 'Clothes Drop' (2005) failed to match the success of 'Hot Shot' but were still popular, especially in Europe. Shaggy went on to perform at a number of high profile events in the late 2000s, most notably the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, and was asked to produce the official single of the 2008 World Cup. He was part of a charity single in 2010 which was released to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

In 2011 he revealed he had been working on new material as he released official videos for 'For Your Eyez Only', 'Sweet Jamaica' and 'Girlz Dem Luv We'. His first new album in four years, 'Shaggy & Friends', was released later that year and saw the rapper join up with Chris Martin, Shaun Pizzonia and Ty-Arie. Shortly after he released 'Summer in Kingston' with its lead single 'Fired Up (F**k the Rece$$ion!)' featuring guest vocalist rapper Pitbull. Another collaboration followed in the form of 'Smile' with Tamer Hosny and followed this with the release of his next album's lead single. 'World Citizen', taken from 'Rise', saw Shaggy join up with folk singer Jahcoustix and brought the rapper back in to Europe.

2012 saw Shaggy collaborate with production due Sly and Robbie on his latest album 'Out of Many, One Music', with the single 'Make Up' featuring Wayne Wonder. He later announced that he had embarked on an unusual working relationship with singer-songwriter Sting. The pair released their first collaborative album '44/876' in 2018 and they set out as a duo to market their new music.