NYTimes | Monday, November 24, 2025 
Jimmy Cliff, Singer Who Helped Bring Reggae to Global Audience, Dies at 81

His Grammy-winning records as well as his starring role in the cult movie “The Harder They Come” in 1972 boosted a career spanning seven decades. Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican reggae singer who helped popularize the genre around the world with songs like “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and “The Harder They Come,” has died. He was 81. Mr. Cliff’s wife, Latifa Chambers, announced his death in a post online early Monday. She said the cause was a seizure followed by pneumonia. Mr. Cliff won two Grammy Awards over his decades-long career: best reggae recording in 1986 for “Cliff Hanger” and best reggae album in 2013 for “Rebirth.” But his breakthrough in the United States came when he starred as an actor in “The Harder They Come,” a 1972 movie about a struggling Jamaican musician who turns to crime. That film became a cult favorite in the United States, running for years in midnight slots at theaters. It won Mr. Cliff a wide base of fans, many of whom bought the movie’s soundtrack, which included “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and “The Harder They Come” as well as Mr. Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross” and “Sitting in Limbo.” – Read more 

Jimmy Cliff news als from NPR – Reggae pioneer Jimmy Cliff dies at 81