MariJah has always been strongly dedicated to reggae music. As a youngster she kept on attending dub sessions in “Beljam”, as we like to name Belgium. In 2010 she started singing jazz standards with her father and playing Bob Marley's music on her own. Soon enough she started to look for a reggae band where she could start to sing as a backing vocalist. Over the years she gained a lot of experience in several reggae bands in Belgium (Smiling Jam, Zion Youth, Heartwash) and she is still active in the Ghanian reggae band ‘Seekaman’, based in her hometown Ghent, where she started to sing around 2015. Her love for black music has always been very intense and prominent, with a very wide interest of music from all over the world.
At the age of 23 she started writing and composing her own songs in her first band called ‘O bain Marie’, where she played the guitar and sang. It was a very inspiring and creative project where she developed her own way of playing with harmonies and arrangements, experimenting with different styles and genres. After a very fertile musical growth she decided to end the project in 2022.
Meanwhile she started to develop a growing love for roots reggae music by meeting people and producers along the road. Her first revelation with reggae and dub music was with Kaya aka Jahmbassador in 2015, who lived together with Ruben Vanhee, also known as ‘Rubi Roots’, who has become her life partner and number one supporter. The first track recorded in the Jah Embassy studio was ‘Ego’, a song written by Kaya and brought alive by the voice of MariJah.
About 4 years later it got released on a 10 inch together with ‘Humble Rock’, a version of their good friend ‘Irie Ilodica’ who unfortunately past away in 2018. The strong message of the song touched a very large group of reggae & dub lovers and was a huge success in Belgium and abroad. Since that release untill now, the song has been played on different sound systems all over the world. From that moment they never stopped creating and producing tunes together, dubplates have been playing by the best sound system in Belgium and abroad. In 2023 they are planning to release a new EP called ‘Take Care’, including four powerful tracks plus heavyweight dubs.
After her first steps as a chanter with sounds like High’r Ites in Leuven she got more opportunities to chant on sound system sessions such as Reggaebus, Reggae Geel’s 18 inch corner and Dour Festival. When she moved to Ghent city she crossed roads with Unification Sound who gave her the chance to grow even more into the soundsystem culture. The Vibes Kitchen family invited her many times to spread her peaceful vibes, of which the fifth edition of Galm must be the most memorable one, backed by her husband Rubi Roots.
Around 2017 another collaboration came up with the great producer Unlisted Fanatic out of Antwerp. The first track they released on digital platforms was ‘Love 2 Chant’ (2020), a jazzy production featuring a counteraction by the big bad Saimn-I: ‘Mek we Chant’. Only one year later in 2021 ‘Consciousness’ got released on the French label All Nations Records from France. This song was the first track that she wrote all by herself, with some splendid addings of Martin Sir Runnin’. Also this track was warmly received by the people and got played by many. Unlisted Fanatic had been working together with ‘The Moonshine Horns’ for a long time and brought them together with the vocals of MariJah. A new project called ‘UFO collective’ was born in 2021. Unlisted was growing into a different concept where he reinvented himself. He started to put together a live set with live instruments, vocals and live mixing. Since 2021 they are playing shows all over Belgium. In 2023 some international shows are scheduled yet. A digital release and video clip of the track ‘Free Your Mind’ came out early this year.
Since 2021 MariJah started started performing stage shows with a live band called ‘The Root Sense’, where she’s working together with some of the finest reggae and jazz musicians from Ghent ; Wannes Cornelis (Aardpeer) on drums, Emile Claeys (Iron Ites, Soul Wire) on bass, Wouter Rosseel (Jamaican Jazz Orchestra, ex-Pura Vida) on guitar and Ilias Verbelen on keys. Long before the band was born MariJah became close friends with the leading man and bass player of the band ‘Emile Claeys’ who also played with ‘Iron Ites’ and had a project with ‘Stevo Fakoli’ (ex-Pura Vida) under the name of Soulwire. Together they created songs like ‘new day’ and recorded it in Stevo’s studio. Emile started to build his own home studio and invited MariJah to create on his riddims. In 2021 they brought out ‘Fight’ on Youtube, a song that’s been part of their live shows, together with version of her productions alongside Jahmbassador and Unlisted Fanatic.
Their first concert was at a small and cosy festival called ‘Fêtes Floral’ in the region of Leuven, the place where MariJah’s roots lie. They had a very special opportunity to work together with Fikir Amlak from California who was in Belgium at that time and became a big inspiration for them. In the summer of 2022 they planned two double bill concert in Belgium but unfortunately Fikir Amlak had to cancel because of health problems. Despite this lost opportunity MariJah & The Root Sense had a very nice debut summer where they had the chance to perform in places like OLT (Rivierenhof) and the ‘Polé Polé’ stage of ‘Gentse Feesten’. During the winter of 2022-2023 they are fully working on an album that probably will be released in 2024.
The amazing year 2022 ended in a fine style, working on a collaboration with Daba Makourejah, linking up with Eek-A-Mouse and Mafia & Fluxy at Jah Embassy Studio, and being invited by DJ Kullar (Roots Youths Records) as guest singer at the Dublife dance plus radioshow in London. More to come! More Love!