When the date of the notorious Grammy music awards is approaching, you expect to hear about hits, nominations and wins from established world-class artists with a mainstream sound. What you definitely don’t expect is a nomination and ultimately winning the award by a Greek. And if you say you might expect that, you certainly can’t imagine him winning it for Best Reggae Album.

The reason is the Greek-born, acclaimed music producer Alexx Antaeus who, together with the son of the legendary Bob Marley, Julian Marley, won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album for their album “Colors of Royal”.

The award was received by the Greek producer of the album who could not hide his excitement. After first expressing his gratitude to the Awards Academy, his mother and his wife, he dedicated this important international award to the people of Jamaica, where he has been living and working for long periods of time in recent years. And they have responded to the country’s motto, ‘Out of many, one’,” he said, meaningfully.

But who is Alexis?

Alexis, now 63 years old, was born and raised in Patras, Greece. When he was 17 years old he immigrated with his parents to the USA and studied at California State University where he graduated with a degree in Music Industry Science. His first professional contact with the world of music was somewhere around the late 80’s in his capacity as a DJ who very soon proved to have a great talent for mixing different music, i.e. remixing. But at the same time, he was also writing his own music.

At the same time, he worked as a reporter for the internationally renowned music magazine Billboard, he would get to know the world of the American music industry from the inside and get in touch with established people in the industry who would recognize his talent and put him in touch with many well-known artists.

In 1992 he was awarded the “Best DJ in Los Angeles” award, which made him even better known in the music circles in which he had begun to penetrate dynamically as a producer, and in the same year he would become a member of the Grammy music awards jury.

He would then set up his own studio in New York, where in the years to come, great names of the world music scene would pass through, including the Rolling Stones, The Boys, Herbert Gronemeyer, and Earth Wind & Fire, among others.

Apart from producing albums for other artists, he also records personal albums, which are mainly moving along the paths of chill-out music and are based on the mixing of traditional, electronic and hip-hop elements. In particular, the tracks from his album “Byzantine Meditation” will be played a lot on American radio and some of his compositions will be used in popular commercials.

“Few Greeks to date have managed to make their presence felt in the international music scene. One of them is Antaeus… His sources of inspiration, this time, are religions from all over the world, always with the magical atmosphere he creates” will write about him in the magazine of the once powerful Virgin Megastore on the occasion of the release of his album “World Prayer” while “Palm of the Prophet”, one of the tracks of his album “Zero4”, will be included in one of the editions of the world famous lounge record collection “Buddha Bar”.

Jamaica
Jamaica’s rich musical tradition and the international success of Jamaican DJ Super Cat’s work gave Alexx the impetus to explore the country in depth and somehow he became one of the first artists to combine techno with Jamaican traditional music and reggae. It is in this context that his successful collaboration with the son of reggae legend, Bob Marley, who is following in the footsteps of his late father and has even managed to get very positive reviews for his work. This was his third Grammy nomination in a row, and a lucky one, as it turned out, as it was the first time he had won this prestigious award, along with his Greek partner, who already had several gold and platinum records to his credit.

Apart from music, however, Alexx Antaeus’ relationship with Jamaica has extended to the business side as he runs one of the most famous ethnic restaurants in Kingston, located on the same street as Bob Marley’s home, which has been turned into a museum. The owner of the restaurant chose to advertise his Greek heritage by giving him the name “Opa”. In addition, whenever his professional obligations allow him to visit his homeland and travel, from Patras and Athens to Mykonos and Kos.