Koffee, Protoje, Kabaka Pyramid, Sean Paul, and Shaggy Nominated for Best Reggae Album for the 2023 Grammy Awards

The 65th Grammy Awards will see five Jamaican musicians vying for the coveted gilded gramophone in 2023, with dancehall/reggae artistes Koffee, Protoje, Kabaka Pyramid, Sean Paul, and Shaggy named as 2023 nominees for Best Reggae Album.

The California-based reggae band SOJA’s win in 2022 for Best Reggae Album stirred up quite the controversy in Jamaica, but with only Jamaicans featured on the current shortlist, next year’s win is sure to be met with more local approval. With the Grammys set to return on February 5, 2023, in Los Angeles, the nominations were announced on Tuesday, with R&B singer John Legend presenting the nominees in the category ‘Best Reggae Album’. Today’s announcement saw Kabaka Pyramid earning his first Grammy nomination for his album The Kalling, which was produced by Damian “Junior Gong” Marley and released on September 30. 

After becoming the first woman and youngest winner of the award in 2020, Koffee received her second Grammy nomination today for Gifted. The album was released in March via Promised Land Recordings. Protoje, who earned his first nomination for A Matter of Time in 2018, will this time be vying for Best Reggae Album with his sixth studio album, Third Time’s the Charm, which was released in September.

No strangers to the Grammys, veteran entertainers Sean Paul and Shaggy were once again featured in the category, this time around for their albums Scorcha and Com Fly Wid Mi, respectively. Paul, the only repeat nominee from the previous edition of the awards, won in 2003 for his album Dutty Rock. Scorcha was released by Island Records in May and is the musician’s tenth Grammy-nominated project. Shaggy’s Com Fly Wid Mi was produced by Sting and released in May. His past collaboration with Sting, 44/876, earned him his second Grammy win in 2019, having secured his first in 1996 for Boombastic.

Watch nominee announcements below.