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Tonderai Zvimba, Showbiz Reporter
DANCEHALL chanter, Nutty O, yesterday trended after radio station ZiFM Stereo as well as some news sites shared news that his album had been nominated for the 2019 Grammy Awards in the Best Reggae Album category.

ZiFM Stereo presenter Miss Becky, who is standing in for Patience Musa on The Exhale Block, went on to play a song by Nutty O yesterday morning to celebrate this feat. After hearing this, many started congratulating the Boom Shelele hit-maker with some quizzing how he had managed to penetrate the international market as well as which album had been nominated.

Nutty O also somehow misled his fans by sharing an article whose headline said he had been nominated for the Grammy’s making many believe he was up for an award.

A quick check by this newspaper revealed that the Kenako protégé had not been nominated, but an artiste from Jamaica — Etana — who featured Nutty O on her Reggae Forever album, is the one who had been nominated.

Posting on his Facebook page, Nutty O said he was thrilled to have been featured on such an album that is getting recognised in the United States of America.

“When I tell my momma that I’m on a project that has been nominated for a Grammy Award and she asks what’s that, what shall I tell her? Shout out to my sister Etana for allowing me to contribute to this record breaking album.

“From Billboard chart topping to Grammy nomination. Blessings! Congratulations my sister!”

On the Reggae Forever album, Nutty O was featured on a song titled No Money No Love and is the only artiste that Etana featured on this album.

Last year, Nutty O’s management introduced Etana to him and the two did a remix of Nutty O’s Do It Alone song.

“Late last year, I approached Etana’s management on a pure management assignment and through the right protocol, I proposed a collaboration between their artiste and mine,” said Nutty O’s manager Byron Kabaira.

“Since then, we’ve always been in contact and they offered Nutty O an opportunity to feature on Etana’s 2018 album on the song No Money No Love. We agreed and the two artistes exchanged files and vocals online. It had always been Nutty O’s dream to work with one of his childhood reggae inspirations”.

Kabaira added that Nutty O has been hard at work with more international collaborations coming up.

“Nutty O has also been featured on an album that just got released by Namibia’s biggest artiste Gazza. The track will be officially released in Zimbabwe at the end of this week,” he said.