
This year's International Reggae and World Music Awards will honor and recognize Living Legends and Icons since the 1960s who consistently performing and working in the industry.
Today we feature two members from the legendary I-Threes , Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt. Read below about their contributions to the music industry and the world.
Marcia Griffiths
In a career spanning forty years and still going strong, is one of the most influential female artists in Jamaican popular music. Hailed as the Empress of Reggae music, Griffiths gained international recognition as both a soloist and as a duo with Bob Andy as Bob and Marcia. Ten years after entering the music business she toured the world as a member of the I-Threes with Bob Marley and the Wailers. Subsequently she hit the Billboard chart as a soloist with her monster hit Electric Boogie creating a world class dance from the song called the Electric Slide which became popular all over the U.S.
Judy Mowatt
Grammy nominated, internationally acclaimed reggae artist became the first female singer nominated for a Grammy Award in the reggae category with her Working Wonders album in 1985. Her earlier project Black Woman (1980, teamed her up with Jamaican singer Freddie McGregor. It is considered by many critics to be the greatest reggae album by a female artist and the first reggae album recorded by a woman acting as her own producer.
In the early 1970's, Mowatt was associated with Bunny Livingston/Wailer and wrote some of the tracks he recorded with the Wailers. Mowatt rose to fame when she joined Bob Marley & the Wailers backing vocalist trio, the I-Threes in 1974.
Formerly a member of the Rastafarian movement, she converted to Christianity in the late 1990s. Mowatt now sings Gospel music. In 1998 she released her debut gospel album entitled Love and in 2000 released a project called Soldiers of Jesus
Christ which featured reggae artists Papa San, Lt. Stitchie, Chevelle Franklyn and others who became born again Christians. Her 2002 album Something Old, Something New featured some of her previous material as a secular artist as well as new songs and interpretations of traditional church music.
List of Honorees IRAWMA 2012
Reggae 50 Honorees:
Rita Marley - Work in the preservation and promotion of reggae's legacy
Marcia Griffiths - Empress of reggae and world music and as the most indomitable entertainer in all the decades since the early 1960s.
Judy Mowatt - Spiritual service through music
Freddie McGregor - 50 years of dedicated and untiring service to Jamaica and the world
Ken Boothe - Most consistent in the preservation of Jamaica's Rocksteady music
Eric Donaldson - The king of Jamaican song contest in the past 50 years
Copeland Forbes - 50 years of valuable contributions to the music industry

