KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Gram­my-award-win­ning, Di­a­mond-sell­ing, Ja­maican su­per­star, Shag­gy, has teamed up with so­ca artiste Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller to make so­ca/ca­lyp­so mu­sic pop­u­lar all year round.Shag­gy made the dis­clo­sure on the Tam­ron Hall Show on Wednes­day.

Broad­cast from New York City, Tam­ron Hall airs across the Unit­ed States in na­tion­al syn­di­ca­tion on ABC-owned tele­vi­sion sta­tions.

Hall brought on the duo for her Tam Bam, who in­tro­duced the Ja­maican su­per­star to a scream­ing live au­di­ence and asked him about the sin­gle Mood.

“So­ca and ca­lyp­so have been the fab­ric of the Ja­maican cul­ture for many years. My Caribbean peo­ple in the house,” Shag­gy said, prompt­ing loud screams.

“It has al­ways been dubbed as some­what of a sea­son­al mu­sic and I think it should pass that. Kees and I had this whole idea to bring it past it be­ing this sea­son­al thing, be­cause we said I’m in a mood. I’m not just in a good mood for Car­ni­val, I’m in a good mood all the time.”

Hall then wel­comed Kees to the stage, ask­ing him how he felt about shar­ing the mo­ment with Shag­gy.

“It is an ho­n­our. It is al­ways amaz­ing when Ja­maica and Trinidad come to­geth­er, any­body from Trinidad,” Kees said to a scream­ing au­di­ence.

“Just as he said, cre­ate the mu­sic and cre­ate out­side of the sea­son. Let peo­ple en­joy the vibe all year round.”

The duo then went on to per­form their 2023 Car­ni­val re­lease Mood, which has re­ceived over 200,000 views on IG, over 20,000 views on the show’s YouTube Chan­nel and over 5,000 shares on Face­book.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Kees about the in­ter­view and per­for­mance.

“Shout out to Shag­gy and his awe­some team for help­ing us take So­ca to new heights,” he said.

“This show­case was just a taste of what’s com­ing next for us and the in­cred­i­ble mu­sic and cul­ture we have in T&T and the Caribbean. It’s amaz­ing to see so many peo­ple en­joy­ing and shar­ing the clip. This song is tru­ly spe­cial and rep­re­sents a mo­ment for us to come to­geth­er, show our strength and sup­port our mu­sic and cul­ture. Let’s keep ris­ing and spread­ing the so­ca love.”

Shag­gy and Kees will per­form at the Cali Roots Fes­ti­val in Mon­terey, Cal­i­for­nia, to­mor­row.