Musician Jimmy Cliff, legend of reggae and cultural icon, died at the age of 81. His wife, Latifa Chambers, announced the death on social media: “To all of his fans around the world, I want you to know that your support was his strength throughout his career… Jimmy, my love, rest in peace. I will follow your wishes,” she wrote on Instagram. Originally from Jamaica, Cliff was a singer and actor, with hits such as You can get it if you really want it, now I can see clearly AND Wonderful world, beautiful people, and had a leading role in the crime drama The harder the fall will be (1972). The film is considered a breakthrough in Jamaican cinema.
Born in a suburb of St. James, in the north-west of the island, Cliff grew up with the bare minimum in a very unequal and poor country. “I went to school without shoes, some friends affectionately called me the boy without shoes and until they told me I didn’t worry about having them. I brushed my teeth with my finger, without toothpaste or toothbrush,” he said in an interview with this newspaper in 2015. “I was in my father’s foundation where we helped each other in the neighborhood. I was very rich mentally and spiritually.”
With a high-pitched and intense voice, Cliff has combined commitment to great political or social causes, with a particular focus on the African continent, with a declared approach to pop, exemplified in the popular Many rivers to cross. With his two big blue eyes wide open, he sang—during the conversation with EL PAÍS— Now I can see clearly and the locker room was flooded with resonances soul. “I’m original. I’m not a copy. My voice is authentic, my style too, everything you see is real.”
He is one of the few musicians, along with Bob Marley and others, to have been awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit.
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