RECOGNISED as Canada’s Grammy Awards, the annual Juno Awards has done little for the profile of its reggae winners.
But according to Exco Levi, who won the Reggae Recording of The Year for the third straight year on March 29, it has given his career a boost.
The 33-year-old deejay’s latest win was for Strive, a song he did with roots singer Kabaka Pyramid.
Strive was one of several cuts on the popular Honey Pot ‘riddim’, produced by German duo Silly Walks Discotheque. Chronixx’s massive Smile Jamaica was also done on the beat.
While Strive opened new doors for him in Jamaica, the Clarendon-born Levi says the Juno has also given him new fans in Canada.
“When I won the first Juno, I didn’t realise how important it is. Then I attended for the first time in 2012 and found that Canada has the seventh largest music industry,” he said. “It really widens my fan base ’cause I perform in most of the big cities (in Canada) and on all the major festivals.”
Levi (Wayne Ford Levy) first won the Juno in 2011 for the Donovan Germain-produced Bleaching Shop, a song hitting out against the popular practice of skin-bleaching.
Last year, he won for the song Storms of Life, also produced by Silly Walks Discotheque. Exco Levi’s EP, Words of The Wise, is scheduled for release on August 29 by VP Records.