{"id":1818,"date":"2025-11-25T13:49:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2025-11-25T13:57:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:57:50","slug":"jamaican-reggae-legend-jimmy-cliff-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=1818","title":{"rendered":"Jamaican Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Reggae icon, Jimmy Cliff, one of the most prominent and beloved proponents of reggae music, died on Monday, at the age of 81.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A star since the 1960s, Cliff helped bring the sound of Jamaica to a global audience with hits including Wonderful World, Beautiful People and You Can Get It If You Really Want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tems - Love Me JeJe (Official Video)\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y_NTooezadU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He also starred as a gun-toting rebel in the 1972 crime drama The Harder They Come, a cornerstone of Jamaican cinema, widely credited with introducing reggae to America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using the late icon\u2019s official Instagram account on Monday, Cliff\u2019s wife, Latifa Chambers, announced his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTo all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The message was also signed by their children, Lilty and Aken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Born James Chambers in 1948, Cliff grew up as the eighth of nine children in abject poverty in the parish of St. James, Jamaica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He began singing at his local church at the age of six, and by 14 had moved to Kingston, adopting the surname Cliff to reflect the heights he intended to reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He recorded several singles before topping the Jamaican charts with his composition Hurricane Hattie. In 1965, he moved to London to work with Island Records\u2014later home to Bob Marley\u2014though early attempts to adapt his sound to rock audiences were not fully successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cliff struck gold with the 1969 single Wonderful World, Beautiful People\u2014an upbeat anthem\u2014and the politically charged Vietnam, which Bob Dylan called \u201cthe best protest song ever written.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cliff became an international star with The Harder They Come, playing Ivan Martin, a young man trying to break into Jamaica\u2019s corrupt music industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe film opened the door for Jamaica,\u201d Cliff recalled. \u201cIt said, \u2018This is where this music comes from.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His later works included Grammy-winning albums Cliff Hanger (1985) and Rebirth (2012). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of&nbsp;Fame&nbsp;in&nbsp;2010. <a href=\"https:\/\/punchng.com\/jamaican-reggae-legend-jimmy-cliff-dies-at-81\/\">(Punch)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reggae icon, Jimmy Cliff, one of the most prominent and beloved proponents of reggae music, died on Monday, at the age of 81. A star since the 1960s, Cliff helped bring the sound of Jamaica to a global audience with hits including Wonderful World, Beautiful People and You Can Get It If You Really Want. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[2285,2286,2103,2284,2283],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bob-marley","tag-island-records","tag-jamaica","tag-jimmy-cliff","tag-reggae"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jamaican Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff dies at 81 - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reggae icon, Jimmy Cliff, one of the most prominent and beloved proponents of reggae music, died on Monday, at the age of 81.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=1818\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jamaican Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff dies at 81 - 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