Bob Marley’s 78th Birthday

Reggae legend Bob Marley is celebrated worldwide by reggae lovers today, February 6, which is his birthday. Each year around this period, fans around the globe play music from the icon’s vast catalogue and attend concerts commemorating the birthday of the Reggae King, such as the “Free Bob Marley” concert hosted today at Emancipation Park in New Kingston.

Bob Marley, born Robert Nesta Marley, was born in Nine Miles, St. Ann, on February 6, 1945, making today his 78th birthday. After creating the Teenagers, a group that would later become the Wailers, with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, he began his musical career in 1963.

The group’s debut album, The Wailing Wailers, in 1965, consisted of the hit song One Love, which gained them massive recognition, and they subsequently signed to Island Record, which was when they changed their name to Bob Marley and The Wailers and gained international recognition with their music.

However, by 1974, the group broke up, and Marley continued under the band’s name. In 1975, Marley rose to international prominence with his hit single No Woman, No Cry. He released his Rastaman Vibration album in the United States, which went to the Top 50 Billboard Souls Charts.

Marley dropped his Exodus album in London after he survived an assassination attempt in Jamaica and then moved to the United Kingdom. Marley was diagnosed with cancer in 1977 and died on May 11, 1981.

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Among his many musical hits and achievements, Marley has earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. He has also attained induction into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame and an Order of Merit from the Jamaican Government.