‘Forward March’ - Key to the City of Lauderhill for Derrick Morgan during Independence celebrations

More than six decades after Derrick Morgan helped provide the soundtrack to Jamaica’s birth as an independent nation, the legendary singer has received another major honour – this time from one of the most vibrant Caribbean communities in the United States.

The City of Lauderhill, Florida, presented the pioneering Jamaican singer with a Key to the City on Saturday, recognising Morgan for his contribution to Jamaican popular music, his cultural legacy, and the resilient spirit that has carried him through a remarkable career.

The ceremony was held at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center as Jamaicans across South Florida continued celebrations marking the island’s 64th anniversary of Independence.

Lauderhill Mayor Denise Grant and Commissioner John T. Hodgson conferred the honour on Morgan on behalf of the city.

Dancehall stars Beenie Man and Busy Signal and reggae queen Marcia Griffiths were also on hand, performing before a large audience during an evening that brought several generations of Jamaican music together under one roof.

For Morgan, the recognition carried special significance because of Lauderhill’s enormous Jamaican and Caribbean population — a community so deeply connected to the island that the South Florida city has sometimes been affectionately dubbed ‘Jamaica Hill’.

“It is quite the honour to be recognised by the diaspora here in Lauderhill, nicknamed Jamaica Hill,” Morgan said.

“Thanks to Mayor Denise Grant and Commissioner John T. Hodgson for the Key to the City. It is greatly appreciated, especially on the 64th birthday of our beloved Jamaica. I hope to see many more Independence celebrations. Forward march on, Jamaica, land we love.”

The timing could hardly have been more appropriate. Morgan’s Forward March, released in 1962, became one of the defining musical expressions of Jamaica’s Independence era, forever linking his voice to the optimism surrounding the emergence of the new nation.

More than 60 years later, the song remains a piece of Jamaica’s cultural memory.

That connection takes on renewed significance every August when folk songs, ska, rocksteady, reggae and dancehall once again become the soundtrack to national pride both at home and throughout the Jamaican diaspora.

But Forward March represents only one chapter in a career that places Morgan near the foundation of Jamaica’s modern music industry.

Born in Clarendon on March 27, 1940, Morgan emerged during the period when Jamaica was beginning to develop a recorded musical identity distinct from the American rhythm and blues that heavily influenced the island. He would ultimately become known as the ‘King of Ska’, helping to shape the musical transition through ska and rocksteady and into reggae.

One of the most celebrated stories surrounding Morgan’s career came in 1960 when he reportedly occupied the top seven positions on Jamaica’s pop chart simultaneously. The seven songs – Be Still, In My Heart, She’s Gone (Sunday Monday), Meekly Wait and Murmur Not, Fat Man, Lover Boy and Oh My – turned the young singer into one of the island’s first genuine recording stars.

Morgan’s career unfolded during an extraordinary period of experimentation when Jamaican musicians and producers were effectively constructing a new musical language. His 1962 single, Went to the Hop, has been credited with pioneering the use of electric bass guitar in Jamaican popular music, while Blazing Fire (1963) has been associated with the early use of the electric piano in the island’s recordings.

His 1961 recording, Love Not to Brag, with Millicent ‘Patsy’ Todd has also been cited as a groundbreaking male-female vocal duet in Jamaican popular music.

Lauderhill’s Key to the City becomes the latest in a series of honours. Morgan received a Living Legend Award at the Caribbean Music Awards in 1998. In 2001, the Jamaican government awarded him the Order of Distinction for his contribution to music. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 from the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association and, in 2022, he accepted the Music Icon Award at the National Stadium.

The Lauderhill recognition, however, carries a different symbolism. It came from a city that thousands of Jamaicans and other Caribbean immigrants have helped shape in South Florida.

And, on a night when Beenie Man, Busy Signal and Marcia Griffiths represented generations of music that followed him, Morgan was being honoured as one of the men who helped create the foundation on which those generations stand.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com