Ian Antonio Alvarez (born July 14, 1978), better known by his stage name Bunji Garlin, is a Trinidadian

ragga Raggamuffin music (or simply ragga) is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music with heavy use of sampling. Wayne Smith's " Under Mi Sleng Teng", produced by King Jammy in 1985 on a ...

and soca artist. He is also affectionately known as the Viking of Soca. His spouse is

Fay-Ann Lyons Fay-Ann Lyons-Alvarez (born November 5, 1980) is a Trinidadian soca recording artist and songwriter. She is also known by the stage names Lyon Empress, Mane the Matriarch, and the Silver Surfer, a nickname which she claimed during her performance ...

Early life

Bunji was born on July 14, 1978, in

Arima Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of the ...

, Trinidad. He is of Saint Lucian and Venezuelan descent.

Personal life

He married fellow soca artist

on December 23, 2006, daughter of successful soca singer

Superblue Austin Lyons (born 25 May 1956), better known as Superblue, Super Blue and Blueboy, is a Trinidadian calypsonian, soca musician, and lyricist. Early life Lyons was born on 25 May 1956 in Point Fortin. His mother is a Grenadian and his fat ...

. He is also a second cousin of singer

Patrice Roberts Patrice Roberts (born 11 April 1986) is a Trinidadian soca singer. She is also a second cousin of singer Bunji Garlin. She came to national attention in 2005 with the hit collaboration "The Islands" alongside cousin Bunji Garlin, written by ...

, who performs alongside the popular

Machel Montano Machel Montano (born 24 November 1974)Thompson, Dave (2002), ''Reggae & Soca Music'', Backbeat Books, , pp. 300–301. is a Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidadian Soca music, soca recording artist and record producer. Known for his high energy, fast-pa ...

Career

Bunji has won Trinidad's Soca Monarch/

International Soca Monarch International Soca Monarch was an annual soca music competition/fete event. The finals were traditionally held on every Carnival Friday (aka Fantastic Friday) in Trinidad and Tobago. Contestants in the event vied for two separate crowns or title ...

competition on several occasions: 2002 (tied with Iwer George) with "Down in the Ghetto", 2004 with "Warrior Cry", 2005 with "Blaze the Fire" (both songs were produced by then band member Shawn Noel (Da Ma$tamind) and 2008 with "Fiery". He placed second in the

2009 with "Clear de Road", while his pregnant wife Fay-Ann Lyons placed first with "Meet Super Blue". She also won the Groovy Soca Monarch title that same night with "Heavy T Bumpa". Bunji Garlin's "Brrt" is featured on the ''

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's ''Grand Theft Auto: San And ...

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

. In 2013, Garlin won the Soul Train Award for Best International Performance for the song " Differentology", which features Nigel Rojas on guitar. An album of the same name was released by

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

and

VP Records VP Records is an independent Caribbean-owned record label in Queens, New York. The label is known for releasing music by notable artists in reggae, dancehall and soca. VP Records has offices in New York City, Miami, London, Kingston, Tokyo, ...

in August 2014. In 2017, he released ''Turn Up'', his highest chart placing to date, reaching No. 3 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Reggae Albums chart. On September 24, 2017, Garlin was bestowed with a national award of T&T, the silver

Hummingbird Medal The Hummingbird Medal (abbreviated HBM or H.B.M.) is a state decoration of Trinidad and Tobago, instituted in 1969. The medal is awarded for loyal and devoted service beneficial to the state in any field, or acts of conspicuous gallantry or other o ...

. A song by Garlin entitled "All or Nothing" also appeared in the pilot of the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

TV series ''Impulse''.

Discography

Albums

*''The Chronicles'' (1999) *''Revelation'' (2002) *''Black Spaniard'' (2003) *''Graceful Vengeance'' (2004) *''Flame Storm'' (2005) *''Next Direction'' (2006) *''

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

'' (2007) *''Fiery'' (2008) *"iSpaniard" (2012) *''The Viking '' (2013) *'' Differentology'' (2014), VP/

- US Reggae no. 6 *''Turn Up'' (2017), VP - US Reggae No. 3

Singles

* " Differentology" (2013) * "Truck on D Road" (2014) (featuring

A$AP Ferg Darold Durard Brown Ferguson Jr. (born October 20, 1988), known professionally as FERG (previously A$AP Ferg ( /ˈeɪsæp/ ''AY-sap'')), is an American rapper from Harlem, New York City. He is a lead member of the hip hop collective ASAP Mob, f ...

) * "The Message" (2015) (featuring

Damian Marley Damian Robert Nesta “Jr. Gong” Marley (born 21 July 1978) is a Jamaican reggae musician. The second youngest child of Bob Marley, he is the recipient of four Grammy Awards. Early life, education and family Marley is the youngest son of leg ...

) * "Television" (2016)

Collaborations

* "Carnival Tabanca" (featuring Tarrus Riley) 2014 * "Coofy Lie Lie" (featuring Singing Sandra) (2002) * "Let's Get It On" and "That Woman" (featuring Walker Hornung) (1999, 2001) * "Rags Don't Care" (featuring Chinese Laundry and Shurwayne Winchester) (2003) * "Soca Bhangra" (featuring Shami) (2003) * "Don't Waste Water" (featuring Shurwayne Winchester) (2005) * "The Islands" (featuring

) (2005) * "Lorraine" (featuring Explainer) (2005) * "Move with Us" (TSTT jingle also featuring Shurwayne Winchester and

) (2006) * "Get Up Stand Up" (featuring T.O.K.) (2007) * "Hardcore Loving" (featuring Rita Jones) (2007) * "Swing It" (featuring Chris Black) (2007) * "One Family" (featuring

Freddie McGregor Fredrick "Freddie" McGregor (born 27 June 1956, in Clarendon, Jamaica) is a Jamaican singer, musician and record producer. His music career began when he was seven years old. Biography In 1963 he joined with Ernest Wilson and Peter Austin to ...

) (2007) * "Bring It" (featuring Lalchan Babwa (Hunter)) (2008) * "Country Rum (featuring Neeshan Prabhoo) (2008) * "Bring It Superstar Mix" (Lalchan Babwa (Hunter) featuring

Alison Hinds Alison Amanda Hinds (born June 1 1970) is a British-born Bajan soca singer based in Barbados. She is often referred to as the Bajan " Queen of Soca" as a result of her impact on the genre. Biography Alison Hinds was born on 1 June 1970 in Lo ...

, Andy Singh, Bunji Garlin & Ziggy Rankin) (2008) * "That's How We Party" (featuring

Busy Signal A busy signal (or busy tone or engaged tone) in telephony is an audible call-progress tone or audible signal to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection of that particular telephone call. The busy signa ...

) (2005) * "Big Blood" (featuring 3suns and Sir Skarz) 011* "Sex, Love and Reggae" (Gyptian featuring Bunji Garlin and Angela Hunt) (2013) * "All or Nothing" (Elliphant featuring Diplo and Bunji Garlin) * "Jungle Bae" (

Jack Ü Jack Ü was an American electronic dance music duo consisting of electronic music producers Skrillex and Diplo, formed in 2013. They released their first official single, "Take Ü There", featuring vocals from Kiesza, on October 4, 2014. They re ...

featuring Bunji Garlin) (2015) * "Baddest Things" (Party Favor & Nymz featuring Bunji Garlin) (2015) * "Buss Head" (with Machel Montano) (2017) * "Ride It" (Sebastian Ingrosso & Salvatore Ganacci featuring Bunji Garlin) (2017) * "Famalay" (with Machel Montano and Skinny Fabulous) (2019) * "Bomboclat (Light It Up)" (with

Dillon Francis Dillon Hart Francis (born October 5, 1987), also known as DJ Hanzel, is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He played a key role in popularizing moombahton and later developed its heavier variants, moombahcore and EDM trap. Earl ...

, from the EP ''Magic Is Real'') (2019) * "Break a Branch" (with Motto) (2020)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garlin, Bunji 1978 births Living people Trinidad and Tobago soca musicians Trinidad and Tobago reggae musicians Trinidad and Tobago people of Saint Lucian descent Trinidad and Tobago people of Venezuelan descent People from Arima 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago musicians 21st-century Trinidad and Tobago musicians VP Records artists RCA Records artists