Barrington Levi

Barrington Levy's outstanding career as a top-class reggae vocalist has lasted almost two decades. Called reggae's 'Mellow Canary' by virtue of his strong, pure vocal style, he's renowned as the first original singer of the dancehall era, inspiring many imitators en-route.



Barrington was born in West Kingston in 1962, and recorded his debut single "My Black Girl" with a cousin in 1977 under the name of the Mighty Multitudes. A year later he joined Byron Lee & The Dragonnaires as a backing singer and voiced "A Long Time Since We Don't Have No Love" for Barry Biggs at Dynamic. Producer Henry "Junjo" Lawes discovered him singing on a local sound-system, and wasted no time in taking him to Channel One for the first of many hit singles in 1979. With the Channel One All-Stars - later to form the nucleus of the Roots Radics - laying the rhythms, and Scientist mixing the finished results at King Tubbys, the new singer caused a sensation right from the start, ushering in the dancehall phase at the same time. Those early singles "A Yah We Deh", "Shine Eye Gal" and "Moonlight Lover" were later collected on his debut album "Bounty Hunter" which appeared on the Jah Life label in the States.