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Unfortunately, that award went to Buju Banton, who is now serving a long jail sentence in the United States.
The Grammy Awards ceremony took place on February 13 2011 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.
Grammy Awards, originally known as Gramophone Awards when the concept was first mooted in 1958, are trophies given to outstanding musicians for their recordings in different categories of music genres.

The annual awards feature prominent musicians every year who have shown outstanding achievement in the music industry mainly through record sales.
Grammy is the music equivalent to the Emmy Awards for television or the Oscars for film.
King Isaac is currently in Zimbabwe on holiday as well as to promote his two albums “Isaac Meets Isaacs” and “Here I Go Again”. The first album, a duo with

Gregory Isaacs, will be released immediately by Metro Studios while the latter will be released towards Christmas.
King Isaac has not wasted time since arriving in Zimbabwe. Last weekend he did a gig with the dub band, House of Stone at Londoners, in Strathaven where he wowed the audience with his roots rock reggae tunes.
He is strategising to sing with all the reggae bands in Zimbabwe before going back to the States towards the end of this month.

There is a possibility that he will be at The Basement with one local group this weekend. Apart from that, one Tonderai Chanakira has arranged a lecture by King Isaac at the Zimbabwe Open University on “The Process and Production of African Music”, which is in keeping with the diversity of lectures he delivers at Michigan State University.

Which Zimbabwean in their wildest dreams would ever think of being a musical talent who is honoured to be nominated for their part in a musical performance or part?  Not me.
As a lyricist, King Isaac writes catchy and meaningful songs of outstanding quality. He is a deep and thoughtful songwriter, and this is reflected in the passionate and

engaging lyrics in his songs.

King Isaac delivers his music with a warm and powerful voice. His music is about peace, love and harmony amongst the various people of the world. 
During the singer’s first visit to Jamaica in 1998, the name “King Isaac” was bestowed upon him by Joseph “Bragga” Russell, a former aide of Bob Marley at the Bob Marley Museum, which is situated in Kingston at 56 Hope Road.
King Isaac was born in Harare, Zimbabwe.  He started writing poems at age 14.

At about the same time, the censorship of reggae was lifted in Zimbabwe when the nation attained independence in 1980.
Subsequent visits to Zimbabwe by reggae stars such as Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Gregory Isaacs, and Dennis Brown helped to fuel King Isaac’s love for reggae music.

The young poet soon turned to writing lyrics for songs, and by the mid to late 1980s, he was singing in local reggae bands.
In 1986, he recorded his first song, “Simuka”, a reggae ice about the liberation struggle in South Africa.
At the same time he was studying at the University of Zimbabwe and in 1987, earned a bachelor’s degree in Economic History. He then spent two years studying ethnomusicology at the National Certificate level at the Zimbabwe College of Music.

In January 1991, with assistance from a staff development scholarship from the Zimbabwe College of Music, King Isaac left Zimbabwe to study at Indiana University in Bloomington, USA.
Although he was interested in an academic career, King Isaac also knew that a move to the USA would bring him closer to Jamaica and to the reggae world at large. Upon arrival in the USA, he immediately formed a reggae band named Zimbeggae (Zimbabwe + reggae).

The group performed in many venues in Indiana, focusing on both original and cover material, and King Isaac wrote and recorded several more original songs. In 1993, he earned his MA in ethnomusicology from Indiana University.

Later in 1997, he was appointed to the faculty at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, Michigan. 
His continuing graduate education culminated in his earning a PhD in folklore/ethnomusicology in 1999 from Indiana University, hence the title Dr Isaac.
In the meantime King Isaac reached a milestone in his career when reggae music promoter Gwen Clemens introduced him to Leroy Sibbles, for whom he opened up shows in 1998 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

That same year he embarked on his first annual pilgrimage to reggae’s Mecca, Kingston Jamaica, to make his first recordings there, thus fulfilling a long-held dream. Since then, King Isaac has visited Jamaica at least once a year.
Between 1999 and 2001, King Isaac worked on his self-titled debut album, which was released in Zimbabwe in 2002.

Riding on the success of his first album, King Isaac recorded a new album that was released in Zimbabwe in 2004.
This album, “Munokokwa Mese”, was recorded mostly in Zimbabwe and featured a mixture of various Southern African musical styles and reggae; sung in the local

Shona and Ndebele languages, and English. 
In December 2004, King Isaac was invited by veteran singer, the late Sugar Minott, to perform at Minott’s annual, “Reggae in The Hills” concert where he was well received, owing to his powerful vocal delivery and stage charisma. In October 2005, he returned to Jamaica to deliver a paper on the contribution of Peter Tosh to the Southern African liberation struggle at the University of the West Indies, and to perform at the international annual Peter Tosh Commemoration Concert in Kingston.

Both appearances were received with great appreciation and support.
During subsequent summers, King Isaac travelled to Kingston, where he worked with many veteran reggae artistes, including Gregory Isaacs, Leroy Sibbles, Dean Fraser and the legendary U Roy.
These recordings culminated in King Isaac’s third album, “Legends of Reggae Present King Isaac”, which contains a special appearance by South Africa’s royal ladies of song; the Mahotella Queens.

Since the release of the “Legends” album, King Isaac has been hard at work in the recording studio. 
His most recent releases include a collaboration with the late Gregory Isaacs on the album, “Isaacs Meets Isaac” and “Here I Go Again”.
King Isaac and Gregory Isaacs began working together in 2005, and completed their work in July of 2009. Currently, King Isaac is putting final touches to his follow-up album, working title “Don’t Give Up”.

The new album contains the socially conscious song “Domestic Violence (Is Wrong)”, and its video is available on YouTube. Also included on the album is King Isaac’s special rendition of Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain”.
Because of his achievements, King Isaac is the one Zimbabwean we should be proud of.

• Professor Fred Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on   [email protected]