Etana & George Nooks (2023)

​@LeoOReggio

Etana & George Nooks performed at the Bob Marley Day public concert staged by the Jamaican government at the Emancipation Park, on February 6, 2023.

Shauna McKenzie (born 22 May 1984), known by her stage name Etana, is a Jamaican reggae singer. Her debut studio album, The Strong One, was released in June 2008. In December 2018, Etana was nominated for the 61st & 64th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Reggae Album.
Born Shauna McKenzie in Kingston, Jamaica, the only girl in a family of boys, Etana grew up in the eastern Saint Andrew community of August Town. Her vocal talent was discovered when she was eight years old and was overheard singing along to 1991 hit by the group Air Supply.
Etana rose to prominence in 2006 with an inimitable musical style that resists categorization. Hitting all the right notes on her breakthrough song “Wrong Address”, an emotive lament reflecting the lack of employment prospects for Jamaicans living in violence-plagued communities, she brilliantly fused acoustic folk strands with roots reggae cadences and strains of neo-soul influences. Etana’s genre-blurring appeal reached a wider international audience with the June 2008 release of her critically lauded debut album “The Strong One” on VP Records, which included a lovers’ rock duet with Italian reggae artist Alborosie “Blessing”; a one-drop Rastafarian anthem “Jah Chariot” and her poignantly sung, unwavering declaration of self-assurance “I Am Not Afraid”.
In 2005 a friend brought her to Kingston’s Fifth Element Records, then the management team of Richie Spice, who were enjoying great success with Spice’s single “Earth A Run Red” and the album “Spice In Your Life”. Spice was heavily booked for American and European tours and Etana auditioned to become one of his backup vocalists; she so impressed Spice’s management, she was immediately asked to accompany the Rastafarian singer on his tour dates and she agreed. Recognizing her immense talent, Fifth Element urged Etana to record her own songs. Following almost a year of their requests, she agreed. “I decided to give music another shot after being asked repeatedly to record one song, which was “Wrong Address,” Etana explained. Etana followed the highly praised “Wrong Address” with a spate of hits singles, each honoring her embracement of Rastafarian principles, adherence to a natural lifestyle, acknowledgment of the teachings of Marcus Garvey and Emperor Haile Selassie I and royal representations of women. Etana’s debut album “The Strong One” garnered many awards including Album of the Year honors at the International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWMA) in New York City and at the Excellence in Music and Entertainment Awards (EME) in Kingston. Etana was also nominated as Best New Reggae Artist at London’s annual MOBO Awards in 2008.
On March 2nd, 2015, Etana performed at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York for the private concert “Stop Ebola and Build For the Future”. Her single “Better Tomorrow” from her album “I Rise”, was chosen as the campaignʼs official anthem.
With her 2018 album Reggae Forever, she became the first female in over two decades to be nominated for a Grammy in the Best Reggae Album category.

George Nooks, a.k.a. Prince Mohamed, Prince Mohammed, or George Knooks (born c. 1958 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a reggae singer who initially found fame as a deejay.
Nooks started his musical career in the youth choir at his church and moved on to perform at school concerts and talent shows. After first recording professionally in 1974, Nooks first found success performing under the name Prince Mohamed, as a deejay on disco mix tracks for producer Joe Gibbs. He moved on to work with other producers such as Alvin Ranglin and Bunny Riley. His first album, a joint effort with General Echo, People Are You Ready, was released on the United Artists subsidiary Ballistic in 1978. This was followed by African Roots, recorded the following year for producer Linval Thompson. He had a hit in Jamaica with “Forty Legs Dread”, and the increasing violence in Kingston prompted Nooks to record a version of Little Roy’s “Tribal War”, now singing rather than deejaying, and released under his real name, which he followed with a cover version of Errol Dunkley’s “Darling Ooh”.
His 1996 single “Real Man” reached number 55 on the Billboard R&B Singles Sales chart. In 1997 Nooks released his first album in 15 years, a self-titled collection resulting in three Tamika Reggae Music awards, but since 1997 he has been quite prolific, releasing a string of solo albums. Since the death of his grandmother in 2001, Nooks has primarily recorded gospel material.
His 2016 album Ride Out Your Storm reached number 4 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart and number 22 on the Gospel chart.
Nooks also work as a producer and has run his own Total Records label since the early 1990s.