Jamaica honour for Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff is still grooving the crowds at international festivals

Reggae star Jimmy Cliff is to receive Jamaica's third highest honour, the Order of Merit.

The singer, whose real name is James Chambers, will be the only person to receive the award this year out of those being honoured at a presentation ceremony on National Heroes Day in October.

Cliff, 55, has released 30 albums in a career spanning 40 years and ranks only behind the legendary Bob Marley in the all-time reggae masters who have helped make Jamaican music a world-wide phenomenon.

Cliff is perhaps best known for his role in the 1973 film The Harder They Come, and the song of the same name.

But his international acclaim is still going strong, with recent performances at the UK's Glastonbury and Womad festivals and the Gurten Festival in Switzerland.

According to Cliff's official website, when he was "a rambunctious teenager in Kingston, Jamaica" he walked into the local ice cream parlour/record shop and sang an acappella tune he had written called Dearest Beverly.

Anthems

This led to a career starting began as a Ska singer with Chinese-Jamaican producer Leslie Kong before he signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records in the late 1960s and had a minor song in Europe with Wonderful World.

My way of serving is through music, so that's what I have to do Jimmy Cliff

His role in The Harder They Come as a struggling musician who becomes an underground fugitive and renegade political hero gave Cliff a platform for all his skills.

The film features songs written and performed by him: Rivers of Babylon, Many Rivers to Cross, as well as the title track The Harder They Come.

The sunshine grooves also had a political message such as the line "I'd rather be a free man in my grave than living like a puppet of a slave", which went on to become a rallying cry for the people of Jamaica.

Other film roles included Cliff co-starring with Robin Williams and Peter O'Toole in the film Club Paradise and with Steven Seagal in Marked for Death.

Reggae hero

In 1986, his Columbia Records album, Cliff Hanger won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

Cliff says of his music: "I want to stimulate and motivate people to appreciate life - it's my calling.

"My way of serving is through music, so that's what I have to do."

Jamaica's Order of Merit ranks behind National Hero and the Order of the Nation, which is usually reserved for prime ministers and governors general.

Singers Ken Boothe and Freddie McGregor, who started their careers in the 1960s, were also on the honours list for their contribution to Jamaican music.

The government's National Honours Awards committee says they will be given Jamaica's fifth-highest honour - the Order of Distinction