Junior Kelly
Artist. Roots, dancehall
- Active
- 1980s-present
- Sunrise
- c. 1969, Kingston, Jamaica
- Also known as
- Keith Morgan
Junior Kelly is a singjay, singing and deejaying on the same tune, whose "Love So Nice" took the reggae world by storm at the turn of the millennium, in the Rough Guide's phrase. Angus Taylor describes his style as "half soulful singing, half gritty chanting."
Born Keith Morgan in Kingston, he cut his first single, "Over Her Body," while still at school in the 1980s, but his decision to concentrate on message songs meant few chances to record until the shift in fashion that followed Luciano's success. By his own account he started making music at thirteen and "did not get the break until I was 30." He wrote "Love So Nice" in Boston, where he held a day job and sang in clubs at weekends, after watching a domestic dispute through the peephole of his apartment while cooking to Bob Marley's "Stir It Up."
Back in Jamaica, he recorded it at Anchor studio, with Nico Wayne playing and Michael Stanford producing. A copy reached a Canadian deejay through Jet Star in England, and when it was played at a clash with Barry G it was taken at first for an English record; released in 2000, it went to number one on two Jamaican charts and on charts across the Caribbean, and was a hit as far away as Brazil and Colombia. The turbaned Bobo dread's album of the same name, drawing on several producers, carried the biting "Mr Gunnis," and he went on recording strong singles such as "Clean Heart," "Boom Draw" and "Hungry Days."
Last updated November 5, 2026
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 369.
- Angus Taylor, "Interview: Junior Kelly (2015)," United Reggae, December 6, 2015, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n2014/120615/interview-junior-kelly-2015.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 369. Mel Cooke, "Junior Kelly Tagged an 'England Artiste': 'Love So Nice' Brings Him Back to Ja," Jamaica Gleaner, October 6, 2017, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20171008/junior-kelly-tagged-england-artiste-love-so-nice-brings-him-back-ja, quoting him.
- Mel Cooke, "Story of the Song: 'Love So Nice', Created Watching Domestic Dispute," Jamaica Gleaner, October 6, 2017, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20171008/story-song-love-so-nice-created-watching-domestic-dispute.
- Cooke, "Junior Kelly Tagged an 'England Artiste.'" Cooke, "Story of the Song," on the release year.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 369.
