As Rita puts it, ' Reggae is the heartbeat of a person. Her children (The Grammy award winning Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers), Tuff Gong International (the answer to America's Motown), Rita Marley Music, the I-Threes, the Bob Marley Museum and its associated business enterprises, and the annual Bob Marley day celebrations are just a few of the countless duties that have sustained her status as a spirited force and an ambassador of reggae music. Rita has worn many hats to manifest her continued commitment to Bob, her family and her people, as well as to fulfill her mission to enlighten, educate and entertain through her music. Rita wept, but soon dried her tears, perhaps remembering the now prophetic lyrics of 'No Woman, Nuh Cry', and realizing that her responsibility as mother, wife and heir to the Marley legacy was to raise the banner, to 'carry on' the work that Bob had begun.

The powerful energy created by this musical force came to an abrupt and untimely standstill when Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981. Rita was there at Bob's most triumphant moment, when he sang for the people of Zimbabwe at their first Independence Celebration in 1980. She was on stage with Bob at the One Love Concert when, during one of his most dynamic and sensational performances, Bob symbolically joined the hands of Michael Manley and Edward Seaga (leaders of Jamaica's opposing political parties), illuminating Rastafari as the true peacemakers of the island.

Risking their lives, both courageously appeared in concert, in spite of their injuries. Bob was shot in the arm and Rita was grazed by a bullet to the head. She was beside Bob three days before the Smile Jamaica Concert 1976, when they were both wounded in an ambush at the rehearsal studio (56 Hope Road - now the Bob Marley Museum). Rita was ever-present throughout the stages of Bob's career - the victories as well as the trials. Their horizons quickly expanded to the world stage and the songs of love, hope, unity, and struggle became the mothership that transported reggae music, the message of Rastafari, and the culture of the people of Jamaica to the four corners of the earth. By the early seventies, they developed the I-Threes, Jamaica's three leading female singers (Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths), to provide support harmonies for Bob Marley & the Wailers, who had become the first reggae act to garnish an international record contract. Music became their bond.Įnduring the hardships of the initial years of the Jamaican music industry together, Bob and Rita never turned back.

She would soon make the acquaintance of a local Trenchtown youth, Robert Nesta Marley, who was also answering a musical c alling. It was in the early sixties that her musical career began as a vocalist with the all-female singing group, The Soulettes, who have appeared with the Four Tops, Johnny Nash and numerous other stars. Rita has been a principal figure on the music scene for over 30 years, when the foundation of contemporary Jamaican music was formed, and has maintained a prominent role. It is no coincidence that the talented young Rita Anderson, born in Cuba and raised from an early age in Trenchtown, was destined to become an integral part of the musical Marley family. News Bio Photos Videos Releases Music DatesĪll over the world, the Marley name has become synonymous with reggae music, rastafari and Jamaica.

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