Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican music star and actor, dies aged 81

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Musician behind hit songs such as ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ was credited with helping to bring Jamaican culture to the world with a starring role in 1972 film ‘The Harder They Come’

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Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican star behind hit songs such as “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and “I Can See Clearly Now”, has died aged 81.

The news was announced by his wife, Latifa, in a post to Cliff’s official Instagram page, which said: “It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia.

“I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him. To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.”

Latifa said that her husband appreciated “each and every fan” for the love they showed him, while also thanking the medical team who were “extremely supportive and helpful during this difficult process”.

“Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace,” she said. “I will follow your wishes. I hope you all can respect our privacy during these hard times.”

Born James Chambers in Saint James, Jamaica, on 30 July 1944, Cliff had his first hit song, “Hurricane Hattie”, when he was just 14 years old, after moving to Kingston with his father with the hope of breaking into the music industry.

He then went on to achieve international success by his mid-twenties, thanks to the singles “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” and “Vietnam”.

A starring role in the 1972 crime movie The Harder They Come, for which he also provided the soundtrack, was widely credited with helping bring Jamaican culture to the rest of the world.

Yet he initially balked at the idea; it took writer-director Perry Henzell flying to the UK, where Cliff was preparing for an extensive tour, to convince him.

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“He said one sentence to me that stopped me in my tracks,” Cliff recalled in a 2022 interview with The Independent. “He said, ‘I think you’re a better actor than a singer’. I said to myself: wow! Nobody ever said that to me before, and I had always thought that! Somebody’s reading my mind! It happened like that. I cancelled the European tour that I was planning, and went to do the movie.”

Along with Cliff’s own music, The Harder They Come featured a soundtrack of acts such as Toots and the Maytals and Desmond Dekker.

Despite the film’s huge success both at home and overseas, Cliff returned to his music career after its release. “I went into it thinking, I’m going to do this piece of work with my life, and when I’m finished I’ll go back to touring,” he said. “That’s how I looked at it.”

Over a career spanning more than 50 years, Cliff released 33 albums, his latest being the 2022 record Refugees. The title track was inspired by “what’s happening all over the world” and marked his first collaboration with Wylef Jean, whom he met when the Fugees star inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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