Frederick Nathaniel “Toots” Hibbert (December 8, 1942 – September 11, 2020) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter and the lead vocalist for the reggae and ska band Toots and the Maytals. A reggae pioneer, he performed for six decades and helped establish some of the fundamentals of reggae music.
Toots Hibbert’s 1968 song “Do the Reggay” is widely credited as the start of the genre name reggae.
His band’s album True Love won a Grammy Award in 2005.
In 2010, Toots Hibbert ranked number 71 in Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”, and in August 2012 it was announced that he would receive the Order of Jamaica, the country’s fifth highest honour.
In August 2020, it was reported that Toots Hibbert was in hospital “fighting for his life”, and on September 11, 2020, he had died, at the age of 77, in Kingston, Jamaica due to complications from COVID-19.
Check out our article on Toots and the Maytals guitarist Hux Brown who died June 18, 2020
Check out Toots and the Maytals on Amazon
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