After the pre-selection with 58 bands and 41 MC’s and the semi-finals (10 bands & 10 MC’s) the six finalists for the Benelux Reggae Contest are now known.
Based on the number of votes submitted by the public and critical assessment by an independent jury, Junior Kenna & Fiyah Nation Band, Rapha Pico & The Roots Rockers and Jamaican Jazz Orchestra are selected for the live finals in the Band Contest.
In the MC-contest Fullanny, Puppasonic and Verse iTal will battle for the victory.
The live finals will take place on Saturday, March 29th, at Petrol, Antwerp, Belgium. Tippa Irie and Dubmatix will feature the afterparty!
A short introduction of the artists :
Tippa Irie
Tippa Irie came to prominence in the early eighties as an MC on the South London based reggae soundsystem Saxon Studio International. He achieved his first national exposure on night time BBC Radio 1 in the mid-1980s, with the singles “It’s Good To Have The Feeling You’re The Best” and “Complain Neighbour”, before achieving a UK Top 40 hit in 1986 with “Hello Darling”. However, he enjoyed his biggest success so far in 2003, when he appeared on The Black Eyed Peas’ track, “Hey Mama”. Together with Dubmatix he recorded “Happy” in 2010.
Dubmatix
Dubmatix, AKA Jesse King, is an award winning Canadian one-man project combining dub, electro and reggae. He is one of the world’s most active producers of Reggae & Dub music. He worked with great artists such as Michael Rose, Tenor Fly, Mighty Diamonds, Luciano, Ranking Joe, Tippa Irie, Cornell Campbell, U-Roy and Alton Ellis. Before the BeneluXXL Reggae Contest finals he’ll teach us how to produce a live-dub-track during a masterclass (more info at our website).
Finalists:
Fullanny
Fullanny (Orlando Gambier) is a concious reggae artist from Surinam, born and raised in the Netherlands. Grown up in Rotterdam Fullanny starts to know reggae music since youth and at the age of 14 he wrote his first song. In 2001 Rastafari came in his life and he became the leadsinger of a Surinam/reggaeband. Nowadays Fullanny’s message is not only for the Surinam people, but for all people across the earth, no matter what colour they have or religion. In 2012 Fullanny was already in the Finals of the Live-band contest. Cyan loose cyan fail we are all winners!! Love is the answer!!
Jamaican Jazz Orchestra
Jamaican Jazz Orchestra started in 2011 as the graduation project by Wouter Rosseel for the Academy of Music of Ghent. Jamaican Jazz Orchestra plays a mix of reggae, rocksteady, ska and jazz. In their music you can find influences of Ernest Ranglin, Monty Alexander, Bob Marley, Jackie Mittoo, Skatalites, and many others. Multitalented Saimn-I features as MC for this nice collective!
Junior Kenna & Fiyah Nation Band
Reggae artist ‘Junior Kenna’ is a young talented Dutch native, raised by Surinam and Indonesian parents. From an early age on he was inspired to get involved in music by his mum, uncles, cousins and father (KENDREAD) who are all performing artists for many years. By the early 2000’s he developed his voice and writing skills and soon started performing and recording his unique style on existing riddims from various established reggae/dancehall artists.
Puppasonic & RadikalSound System
Puppasonic is the MC of RadikalSound System. With the experienced and skilled Jah sky pon the controls and the soundsystem and Puppasonic pon the microphone on the wicked reggae, ragga, dancehall & digital version you will definitely get a 100% bulletproof performance inna original old jamaican soundsystem style.
Rapha Pico & The Roots Rockers
Some people are born with music in their genes, a heritage which will guide their future life no matter what. Born of the talented singer Djeynah Delbety (of Revelation Time) from the Caribbean island Martinique and a mother from Surinam with Native American roots in 1989, the multi-instrumentalist and singer Rapha Pico located in the Netherlands couldn’t escape from his musical destiny. Of course he never intended to escape from it, for music is the love of his life. Rapha Pico recorded his first album in the Tuff Gong studios in Kingston JA, produced by Roland McDermott.
Verse iTal
Verse iTal A.K.A. Stefan Wilson, has been a part of the Trinidadian reggae circuit for the last 5 years. Bursting onto the scene in 2008 with the songs “Nyquil” and “Jah Puzzle”, Verse released his debut album that year entitled “Love Cry”. After his debut year, Verse honed his craft and the growth was evident in the 2009 release of the singles “Selassie I” and “BluePrint”. In 2011, Verse iTal released the classic love song “Spring Water”, which played significantly on most of the Trinidadian television stations while the song drew quite a bit of international recognition for the artiste. That year he released his second album “The Fullness”. Verse was now becoming a recognizable name in reggae in his homeland, Trinidad and Tobago. The artiste wanted more than local recognition however, so in 2012 Verse took his album and talents to the UK and Europe.
As usual the live finale will feature public voting and a critical assessment by a professional jury. Every visitor, entering before the start of the finals, will receive a card on which he can vote for the band and MC he loves to see again on a few events during the festival season (and beyond).
After all the winner gets an extensive prize package including fine shows on Reggae Geel, Zwarte Cross, Reggae central, Feest in het Park, Rastaplas, Future Reggae Ruigoord, Kokopelli, Smile!, Mekitburn, Petrol, Vk* and Democrazy. Besides that they’ll also receive lots of professional support by our numerous partners.
Benelux Reggae Contest Finals, Saturday March 29th, 20:00 hours, Petrol, Antwerp (Belgium).
Gate pressure: € 10. More info @ www.beneluxreggaecontest.eu
