吉米·克里夫

James Ezekiel Chambers (30 July 1944 – 24 November 2025), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician. He was considered to be one of Jamaica's most celebrated musicians and was credited with helping to popularise reggae music internationally. At the time of his death, he was the 4th reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences. He was also nominated seven times for the Grammy Awards, winning twice.

Cliff starred in The Harder They Come (1972), the first major commercial film from Jamaica. The soundtrack helped to make reggae widely known. He was known for such songs as "Many Rivers to Cross", "If I Follow My Mind", "You Can Get It If You Really Want", "The Harder They Come", "Reggae Night", and his covers of Cat Stevens's "Wild World", Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" (from the Cool Runnings soundtrack) and "Hakuna Matata". Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. He was one of only two Jamaicans in the Hall of Fame, the other being Bob Marley.

Jimmy Cliff made deliberate, multifaceted efforts to reach across cultural and racial lines and appeal to a mainstream audience. He pursued strategic record deals that gave him access to the primarily white UK market, covered well-known pop and rock songs such as Cat Stevens' "Wild World", which reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart in 1970, and placed his music in popular films including the 1988 hit Cocktail, which featured his song "Shelter of Your Love". Through these efforts Cliff reached a broader global audience while remaining true to his reggae roots, and was widely credited with helping to popularize reggae worldwide.

Early life and education

Jimmy Cliff was born James Chambers on 30 July 1944 in Saint James, Colony of Jamaica, the second youngest of nine children. He began writing songs while still at primary school in St. James, listening to a neighbour's sound system. When he was 14 years old his father took him to Kingston, where he adopted the stage name Jimmy Cliff, "an allusion to the career heights he hoped to scale."

Career

1960s and 1970s

Cliff sought out producers while he was still at school, trying without success to get his songs recorded, and he entered talent contests. "One night I was walking past a record store and restaurant as they were closing, pushed myself in and convinced one of them, Leslie Kong, to go into the recording business, starting with me", Cliff wrote in his own website biography. After two singles that failed to make much impression, his career took off when "Hurricane Hattie" became a hit when he was 17. The record was produced by Kong, with whom Cliff remained until Kong's death from a heart attack in 1971.

Cliff's later local hit singles included "King of Kings", "Dearest Beverley", "Miss Jamaica", and "Pride and Passion". In 1964 he was chosen as one of Jamaica's representatives at the 1964 New York World's Fair. That same year Cliff was featured in a program called This is Ska! alongside Prince Buster, Toots and the Maytals, and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.

He signed to Island Records and moved to the United Kingdom. Island Records initially (and unsuccessfully) tried to sell Cliff to the rock audience. His career took off in the late 1960s and his international debut album, Hard Road to Travel, was released in 1967. It received excellent reviews and included "Waterfall" (composed by Nirvana's Alex Spyropoulos and Patrick Campbell-Lyons), which became a hit in Brazil and won the International Song Festival.

"Waterfall" was followed in 1969 by "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" and "Vietnam" in 1970, both popular throughout most of the world. He released "Many Rivers to Cross" about his struggles with the music industry in 1969. The song was covered by many other artists including Cher, UB40, and John Lennon. Cliff also released a cover of Cat Stevens's "Wild World" as a single.

In 1972, Cliff starred as Vincent "Ivanhoe" Martin (known as Rhyging) in Perry Henzell's classic reggae film The Harder They Come. As the film tells Martin's story, he is a young man without funds. Arriving in Kingston from the country, he tries to make it in the recording business but without success. Eventually he turns to a life of crime. The soundtrack album sold well around the world, bringing reggae to an international audience for the first time. When it was released the film broke box office records in Jamaica and remains one of the most internationally significant films to have come out of Jamaica since the nation's independence from the United Kingdom. The film made its debut at London's Gaumont cinema in Notting Hill on 1 September 1972. Paul Simon recorded "Mother and Child Reunion" with Cliff's backing band.