MCANUFF FAMILY & THE LIGERIANS * Artist spotlight *
Introducing the multi-generational, high-energy reggae act: MCANUFF FAMILY & THE LIGERIANS
After a triumphant first tour in spring 2025, Winston McAnuff is back on stage this time with his children Nadia and Kush McAnuff to unveil their first family album!
Known worldwide as the “Electric Dread”, Winston McAnuff is a living legend of Jamaican reggae. From Fixi to Tiken Jah Fakoly, Bazbaz to Java, he’s built a career on fearless collaborations and boundary-breaking performances. From Glastonbury to Les Vieilles Charrues, he continues to spread his unique, vibrant vision of reggae infused with Creole, African, and Latin American influences.
Now joined by his talented children Kush, drummer and singer with Inna de Yard, and Nadia, a rising voice of the European reggae scene alongside The Ligerians, Winston takes things to a whole new level.
Together with The Ligerians on stage, they deliver an authentic, powerful, and soulful reggae experience, blending roots tradition, family energy, and a message of unity and hope.
With a fresh new repertoire and their most beloved classics, the McAnuff Family is ready to light up festivals and venues across Europe this summer.
Don’t miss the chance to see this multi-generational, high-energy reggae act at the Music Baa - a show that celebrates both heritage and renewal.
Winston McAnuff
He is one of the great voices of Jamaican reggae. Nicknamed Electric Dread for his boundless energy and inimitable voice, Winston McAnuff has left his mark on the history of roots reggae.
After a break in his career, he returned to the forefront in the early 2000s thanks to the French label Makasound, which reissued his early albums and the compilation Diary of the Silent Years (1977-2000). Since then, he has collaborated with Fixi, Camille Bazbaz, Tom Fire, Inna de Yard, Lindigo, and many others.
From the depths of the Jamaican hills to the big international stages, McAnuff conveys a powerful message of peace, love, and unity—always carried by his impressive stage energy.
NADIA McAnuff
Launched by legendary Jamaican producer Linval Thompson, Nadia Mc Anuff is a free spirit, rebellious, feminist, sometimes punk, sometimes mystical... She never hesitates to stray from the beaten path, trying her hand at pop with the Canadian band Agape, professing her boundless admiration for Nina Simone, and playing the Nyabinghi drum, normally reserved for men in Jamaica. Yet it is reggae that runs through her veins. Her encounter with one of the best bands in the genre—the French group The Ligerians—marked a turning point in her career. They first met remotely in 2020, which led to the album Shelter from the Storm, released in June 2024, and European tours in 2024 and 2025.
KUSH McAnuff
Winston’s son and founder of the Uprising Roots Band is part of Jamaica’s new generation of musicians.
A member of Inna de Yard since the first albums released on Makasound, he provides the group’s Nyabinghi rhythm section as well as backing vocals.
His track “Black to I Roots” is the ultimate anthem to the roots of his culture, black pride, and the authenticity of this music that continues to reinvent itself with panache.
The Ligerians
There are few bands whose name is a direct reference to France’s longest river. The story of The Ligerians - the French word ‘Ligérien’ refers to the people living along the banks of the river Loire - began in Tours in 2010.
The band’s five musicians set up Soul Nurse Records studio before working with Rod Anton, a Portuguese-speaking singer with a crystal-clear voice, on the Reasonin’ album (2012). This was their first album to make a name for itself - not least because of its prestigious collaborations with the late Vaughn Benjamin (Akae Beka, ex-Midnite) and Jamaican legends such as Max Romeo and the fabled vocal trio The Congos. Reasonin’ was followed by Wevolution (2014) and Ubatuba (2016), again with Rod Anton, sealing a triptych testifying to the creativity of the Tours-based band.
As the history of music is made up of encounters, The Ligerians have since then teamed up with Joe Pilgrim, an experienced, charismatic Franco-Beninese artist and active member of Dub Addict. Together, they produced Intuitions(2015), a concept album divided into four chapters whose message points the finger at the blindness of Western civilization perverted by the power of money. This was followed by an EP, Step Out (2017), and its standout track ‘Migrants’, a vibrant sounding board for a most tragic topical issue. Filmed in the alleyways of the Calais Jungle - a symbol of the failure of European migration policies - the video shows our brothers and sisters in humanity born, if we were to believe the powerful of this world, on the wrong side of the Mediterranean Sea.
Relentlessly socially and politically committed, The Ligerians went on seeking such collaborations.
They met Chezidek in 2018 through the Irie Ites label. Two years later, the St. Ann’s Bay native and the Tours-based band released Timeless(2020), a resolutely enlightened and humanist album, far removed from the ambient slackness. Irie Ites then invited The Ligerians to accompany other Jamaican artists on stage, including Linval Thompson, Glen Washington and Trinity, as well as in the studio for Soul Nurse Records productions.
From Protoje to Tiken Jah Fakoly, Marcus Gad to Nai-Jah, not forgetting Alpha Steppa and, more recently, Laurent ‘Tippy’ Alfred (I Grade Records), The Ligerians have multiplied projects to the point of becoming a benchmark in today’s Roots Reggae scene. They not only work with internationally renowned contemporary artists, but are also stimulating and promoting the talents of tomorrow like Nadia McAnuff, the daughter of Winston ‘Electric Dread’ McAnuff, with whom they cut a first EP in 2022 before her first acclamaid LP release «Shelter from the Storm» in 2024.
«Each One Teach One» is a phrase that could sum up The Ligerians’s career history, just like a river that irrigates every area of a land, forgetting no one along the way.
Aftermovie tournée 2025 McAnuff Family & The Ligerians
Nadia & Winston mcanuff - single «COLOURS» 2024 - SoulNurse Records
WINSTON, KUSH & NADIA mcanuff «MY PICK TO CLICK»
Check them out on socials
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulnurserecords
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theligerians/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soulnurserecords