As Jamaica celebrated its 61st anniversary of Independence at the annual Grand Gala celebrations on Sunday, August 6, at the National Stadium, the nation also paused to recognise one its iconic musical groups, Morgan Heritage, who were bestowed with the Reggae Icon Award.

The Grammy-winning group was presented with the Icon Award by the Minister of Culture Olivia Grange for their outstanding contribution to the evolution and growth of Jamaica’s music and its worldwide popularity.

“On behalf of a grateful nation, we want to say thanks to Morgan Heritage for keeping the Jamaican flag high with good music, uplifting music, inspirational music, culture music, and conscious music, thank you very much, my brothers,” said Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who presented the group with the prestigious award.

The group, which comprises reggae artiste Roy ‘Gramps’ Morgan, Una Morgan, Peter Morgan, Memmalatal Morgan and the now deceased Denroy Morgan, was formed in 1994.

Since inception, Morgan Heritage has released several stadium albums. Their 2015 album Strictly Roots copped the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. They later received another Grammy Award in 2019 for their album, Avrakedabra.

The legendary reggae group is known for hit songs such as Don’t Affi Dread, She’s Still Loving Me and Down By The River.