Love Is Dangerous is getting a reprise

On By Pranco

Yami Bolo (right) and Japanese singer Miya meet in St. Andrew at the Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Jamaica to mark 60 years of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and Japan.

This The year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and Japan. In October, Japan’s Ambassador to Jamaica, Yasuhiro Atsumi, recognized reggae’s impact on his country with two events in St. Andrew.

They took place from October 19 to 20 at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and at its official residence.

Present at both were singer Yami Bolo, who has performed many times in Japan.

Yami Bolo reunited with Japanese singer Miyazawa “Miya” Kazufumi at the Edna Manley College show where they performed Love is dangeroustheir song which sold over a million copies in Japan in 1994.

It was their first meeting in thirty years.

The Yui Yui Sisters, a six-member group from Japan, also performed at the Edna Manley College event.

“Japan is a special place for me because I know I can sell a million copies. It gives me the confidence that if I can do it there, I can do it anywhere,” Yami Bolo told the newspaper
Jamaican observer.

The artist, who hails from Greenwich Farm in Kingston, said he first visited Japan in 1987 for Japan Pitfest, along with Augustus Pablo, White Mice and Junior Delgado. He returned several times to perform at JapanSplash, one of the biggest reggae festivals in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Yami Bolo’s last appearances in Japan were in 2010.

Also present at the event at Ambassador Atsumi’s residence were artist/show promoter Tony Rebel, another regular visitor to Japan, and Government Senator Thomas Tavares Finson. Yami Bolo presented them with copies of his book, Yami Bolo: poems and songs The Cosmo’s Garrison.

After Bob Marley’s tour of the country in 1979, the Japanese reggae market opened up in the 1980s. It became a fertile region for acts such as Augustus Pablo, Sly and Robbie, Sugar Minott, Freddie McGregor and musicians such as Earl “Chinna” Smith.

Japanese music producers, sound system operators and dancers also traveled to Jamaica to record performers and participate in sound clashes/dance competitions.

–Howard Campbell