Reggae Crooner Barrington Levy To Perform At Island Jam In New York, September 5, 2010

Singer Barrington Levy, who was born in Clarendon, Jamaica is one of the reggae acts slated to perform at Island Jam 2010 on Labor Day, Sunday, September 5 at Roy Wilkins Park in Queens, NY. Levy will join Gyptian, Mr. Vegas and Spragga Benz as the other performers.

In 1976, Levy formed a band with his cousin, Everton Dacres, called the Mighty Multitude; He eventually established his solo career the next year with “A Long Time Since We Don’t Have No Love. In 1979, Levy met Henry “Junjo” Lawes who produced singles “Looking My Love”, “Skylarking”, and “Collie Weed”, all of which became hits and established his career. His next few singles were similarly successful, including “Shine Eye Girl”, “Wicked Intention”, “You Made Me So Happy” and “When You’re Young and in Love”. Levy then recorded several duets with Jah Thomas and Trinity, and appeared at Reggae Sunsplash in 1980 and 1981.

By the time his 1980 album Robin Hood was released, Levy was one of the biggest Jamaican stars, and saw his international fame growing as well, especially in the United Kingdom. Levy then released a series of hit singles, including “Under Mi Sensi”, “Black Roses”, “My Woman” and “Money Move”. He began working with Paul “Jah Screw” Love and toured the UK in 1984, where he enjoyed a big hit on the reggae charts with “Under Mi Sensi”, which was followed by the crossover hit “Here I Come”, which reached number 41 in the UK Singles Chart. His good fortunes continued with two cover versions of Bob Andy songs – “My Time” and “Too Experienced. In the 1990s, he continued to release periodic hits in Jamaica, and more rarely in the UK, although his vocals were sampled and used in many underground and released Jungle tunes.

In 1998, he released Living Dangerously, which included a collaboration with Bounty Killer, and Snoop Dogg. The release was one of Levy’s most successful since the start of the 1990s, and saw him finally achieve some success in the US. Levy also appeared on two singles by rapper Shyne. In 2005 he did some collaborations with Slightly Stoopid on their album Closer To The Sun. Most recently, he collaborated with a number of hip-hop acts including Snoop Dog on his current album.