George Nooks Honors Late Mother With Emotional Song Mama

George Nooks has turned one of the most painful seasons of his life into music. With “Mama,” the reggae gospel singer faced his first Mother’s Day without his mother, Gwendolyn Davis, who died on February 19, 2025, at age 83 at her home in Alabama after being ill for a while.

The song carries the weight of a personal farewell, but Nooks made clear it was also meant for listeners carrying the same loss. “This song doesn’t quite capture what I am feeling, but I did it for others who have also lost their mothers.” That line gives “Mama” its force, placing it squarely in reggae gospel’s long tradition of testimony songs, where faith, family, and grief are all brought into the open instead of hidden away.

The release was recorded on the Production Totally label and landed on major digital platforms with a release date listed by Audiomack as April 22, 2026, while the page metadata also shows April 23, 2026. The timing positioned the song right in the run-up to Mother’s Day, giving the track a natural home on radio, in church-linked circles, and across the social media posts that often carry tribute songs to wider audiences when the calendar turns toward family remembrance.

Nooks’s own story helps explain why “Mama” feels so rooted in lived experience. His official biography says he was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1960, started singing in his church youth choir, and got his first break in 1974 as deejay Prince Mohammed. He later changed his stage name to George Nooks in 1981 and has released more than sixteen studio albums, a career that has moved between roots reggae, gospel, and devotional material without losing the plainspoken emotional core that has long marked his music.

IRIE FM reported in February 2025 that Nooks was heartbroken after Davis’s passing, and “Mama” now reads as the musical expression of that grief a year later. In a genre where testimony has always been part of the sound, Nooks used this release to honor his mother and to remind listeners that some songs are not built for chart talk first, but for memory, gratitude, and the hard work of healing.