Reggae legend and Grammy winner Ziggy Marley will headline Womad NZ 2024

Reggae legend and eight-time Grammy winner Ziggy Marley is coming to Aotearoa New Zealand next year.

Ziggy has been named as the first headline act for Womad NZ 2024 with organisers describing the news as being “a special first announcement”, with more festival acts to be announced over September and October.

After earning his first Grammy win in 1988 for Best Reggae Recording for Conscious Party, Ziggy has gone on to win seven more (and has received a total of 15 nominations over the years) as well as numerous other awards including a Daytime Emmy Award in 2013 and the UCLA George and Ira Gershwin Award for lifetime musical achievement in 2017. In 2021 he was inducted into the hall of fame for lifetime achievement at the International Reggae And World Music Awards - IRAWMA as well as receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Medgar Evers College in New York.

Ziggy, who is the eldest son of Bob and Rita Marley, is a musician and producer who is as well known for his work as an activist and humanitarian as he is for his music. Over the years he has used his profile to raise awareness of a range of issues from homelessness and poverty, climate change, saving the iguanas of the Jamaican Goat Islands and promoting peace between Israeli and Palestinian communities.

In 2012, he recorded a special version of his song Personal Revolution for Rotary International’s End Polio Now compilation album, with all proceeds going towards Rotary’s campaign to help end polio. He continues to work with Rotary, raising awareness of the group’s efforts to end polio across the world.

Ziggy, who is known as a masterful storyteller, uses his music to explore issues while also focusing on the key topics of love, peace and spirituality. Through his own companies, Tuff Gong Worldwide and Ishti Music, and his charity URGE, he uses his music to help children in Jamaica, Africa and North America.

Ziggy was previously set to perform at Womad NZ in 2020, but cancelled his trip quoting “unforeseen family responsibilities” just over a week before the festival began.

His Womad NZ 2024 appearance won’t be the first time he has performed in Aotearoa New Zealand however, as he and his brothers, Damian and Julien, have all performed here, as did their father Bob who, in 1979, drew a crowd of over 20,000 to the Bob Marley and the Wailers concert at Western Springs.

With Womad NZ attracting more than 15,000 people through the gate each day at last year’s event, there’s no doubt Ziggy will be drawing large crowds himself at the three-day festival, which will be celebrating 21 years of Womad NZ in 2024.

Tickets for the festival are on sale now from www.womad.co.nz