Dancehall legend Beenie Man returns to US after 10-year visa ban
The dancehall legend Beenie Man has been a global superstar since the 1990s, winning both a Grammy and a British Mobo award, but for more than a decade, he was unable to enter the United States.
So it was a particular triumph this week to find himself on US soil, as a guest of honour at the governor of the US Virgin Islands’ mansion, after finally securing a visa for people with extraordinary ability in the arts.
Beenie Man described the moment as a high point in his career, telling the Guardian that the 10-year ban – excluding him from one of the biggest markets for Caribbean music – had been disastrous for his career.
“The work in the United States is different from the work in Europe or the work in Africa. Because you can go to Africa about one to two times a year, but you can go to America every week because you have 50 different states plus territories,” he said. “You can do four or five shows in New York … You can do upstate New York, you can do Manhattan, you can do Queens, you can do Brooklyn and you can do the Bronx. So it’s very important for any artist to have that access.”
The US Virgin Islands governor, Albert Bryan Jr, said: “It was awesome to meet the man that livened plenty of dancehalls for me. Welcoming him to the Virgin Islands was a special pleasure, not only for the privilege of meeting him but the joy I know his music brings to people.”
His attorney Bridgette Bennett – dubbed the “reggae visa lawyer” after winning a string of complex US immigration cases for Jamaican musicians – said no clear reason was ever given for Beenie Man’s visa refusals.
“A big part of my challenge was dissecting the situation and understanding why they were denying my client. There is a concept in immigration called ‘inadmissibility’ that is written into the Immigration and Nationality Act. So they will check off on a little piece of paper saying you are inadmissible under this section of the law. And sometimes … they will not give specifics, but just point to a general area of the law,” she said.
The US-based attorney, who originally got into immigration law when her then husband, a Jamaican entertainer, was facing deportation said her arguments had focused on touring artists’ economic value.
“I usually make arguments on the economic benefits of having live performances. And I have lots of research showing that performers bring in jobs and billions of dollars. Their tours generate a lot of benefits for the US. I also talk about cultural enrichment,” she said.
For Beenie Man, real name Moses Anthony Davis, the visa ban was just the latest hurdle among many he has encountered in his music career, which started when he was just seven years old.
As a child, he had a severe stutter, but he discovered that it disappeared when he sang.
“I never got into music. Music was born inside of me because when I was a kid I used to stutter, and music allowed me to be able to have this conversation with you now,” Beenie Man said.
“I used to sing the reading book, I used to sing the shopping list on my way to the shop. Then I started to put two and two together and make some songs. So this music really gave me a voice so I can speak to people.”
At seven Beenie Man won his first music contest, by eight he had put out his debut single Too Fancy and at 10 he released his first album, The Invincible Beenie Man: The Ten Year Old DJ Wonder.
An incident in 1991 might have torpedoed his career, when he performed a song about “green arm” – or smelly armpits – at an event honouring Nelson Mandela who was visiting Jamaica.
“I remember the day and time like it was today,” said Beenie Man, allowing that the choice was a mistake.
“I sang the wrong song at the wrong time. And yeah I got booed. So I decided that that would never happen to me again. So from there on, I became the man that I am today. I just push forward, push forward, nonstop, just pushing forward right through.”
Beenie Man, who has a Jamaican Order of Distinction for his contributions to music, said that a return to performance in the US was a chance to be a cultural ambassador for Jamaica, a country whose music is central to its identity.
He said: “Without our culture, you have no country. Can you imagine if we stop talking about the Maroons who freed themselves from slavery? Can you imagine if we erase our iconic musicians and poets like [the poet and activist] Miss Lou, Bob Marley and Desmond Dekker – all of these great people who made the music what it is today? Can you imagine if we stop speaking about them and focus only on those promoting violence and ignorance?
“We have to realise that we set the culture, and we preserve the culture. What we don’t want to do is to freak out the culture and make the youth become vultures. Proper music and proper performances. That means, dealing with people in the right way. So If you have to take a hundred pictures, you stand up and take 100 pictures. You can’t be too tired to take 100 pictures when you have 10,000 people pay to come to your show,” he added.
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