Toots & The Maytals has won the 2021 Grammy For Best Reggae Album with“Got to Be Tough. The results were posted on the Recording Academy twitter page and during the pre-telecast at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. This is Toots & The Maytals second Grammy award.  They won in 2004 at the 47th Grammy For Best Reggae Album. The album was titled “True Love”. This is Toots & The Maytals 6th nomination.

The other Best Reggae Album Grammy award nominees  were  Buju Banton for the album “Upside Down 2020,” Skip Marley for the album “Higher Place,” Maxi Priest for the album “It All Comes Back to Love,” and The Wailers for the album “One World”

The “Got to Be Tough” album from Toots & The Maytals features the last performances of Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, who died at age 77 in 2020. For much of his long music career, Toots sang about being resilient in hard times, and this last album continues that tradition and was inspired by an event at a concert in 2013 when a bottle was thrown at a concert and put the artist out of commission for a time. Commenting on the event at age 77, Toots said he had to “get the job done” and went on to produce, arrange, and write all but one of the songs on the album. He also plays several instruments on the recording. The theme he covers are serious: “Just Brutal” highlights the days of slavery, and “Drop Off Head, “Struggle and Stand Accused, focus on wrongful censure. He also includes a version of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” that features an intense and squealing guitar.

The 63rd GRAMMY Awards will be broadcasted live from the Staples Center (no in-person attendance) in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 14th, 2021, on CBS at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time/5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Trevor Noah will host the 2021 Grammy Awards.

PS: Skip Marley has also been nominated for Best R&B Song “Slow Down”.