10 December 2020
Newsdesk
Shaggy joins Rebecca Judd on Apple Music 1 to discuss his new album 'Christmas in the Islands'. He explains that Sting was the one who originally inspired him to write it, plus discusses collaborating with Joss Stone, Beanie Man and others on the record. He also reveals his Christmas Day plans.
Shaggy Tells Apple Music That Sting Inspired Him To Write A Christmas Album
It started with a conversation I had with a friend of mine, Sting, on a Christmas special last year. We did a couple of Christmas carols, little ‘Drummer Boy’ and ‘Christmas is Coming’, and we started to talk about “wouldn’t it be cool to do a Christmas album in reggae”. So I had a tour in the UK with me and Nelly, and then I came back and started writing it. So I’m figuring “the pandemic will probably last two months” and I’ll get back with Sting, but the pandemic kept going and Sting was stuck in New York and I kept writing the songs and I ended up just writing them about my experience of a Jamaican Christmas, and it just became me.
Shaggy Tells Apple Music About Collaborating with Joss Stone, Beanie Man & More
After that I rang a couple of my friends because I went back to Jamaica and was now stuck in Jamaica. So I was working with Beanie Man, Bounty Killer, Junior Reid and all of these guys, and then I went for Joss Stone and Neil, who are my friends anyway, so I just hit them up and they sent me back some vocals and I put it together, got the horn section and the live section and just kept myself busy. This year has been a productive year, I’ve actually put out three albums this year. I put out the Wah Gwaan?! album first, and then Hot Shot 2020 and now I’m doing a Christmas record. Christmas for us in Jamaica is a little bit different to you guys. You guys are sleigh bells and snow you know, we are about - you know because of our great weather it’s party, party, party. We have a day party, a night party, the all white party, the boat party, the beach party. It might be a little different this year because of Covid, we’ll wait and see, but I wanted to create these party songs that they normally play at Christmas but do them as Christmas songs. Ding Dong on ‘Holiday in Jamaica’ is about partying and you know, he’s singing that about Christmas… you go through this rollercoaster ride of holiday emotions, but a tropical one.
Shaggy Tells Apple Music His Christmas Plans
On Christmas Day we usually open presents right here in my living room and then we go into a brunch. I don’t know if you know this, but in Jamaica we have probably the most breakfast choices compared to anywhere else in the world… we just create this brunch that our whole family have.
Shaggy On Whether He Cooks Christmas Dinner
No, I work really hard - I hire people to do that!
