Shatta Wale joins Vybz Kartel, Sean Paul, Buju Banton at IRAWMA dancehall race

Shatta Wale’s return to the IRAWMA dancehall field lands with real weight: the Ghanaian star is up against Vybz Kartel, Sean Paul and Buju Banton in a race that says just as much about dancehall’s global reach as it does about trophies.

The 43rd International Reggae and World Music Awards will take place Sunday, May 17, 2026, at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center in Lauderhill, Florida. Red-carpet arrivals are set for 6 p.m. EST, with the showcase and presentations beginning at 7:30 p.m. EST, and the ceremony will stream live on IRAWMA’s YouTube channel.

IRAWMA says the 2026 edition includes 43 categories and more than 150 nominees, with Vybz Kartel leading the field on 11 nominations. Sean Paul and Shaggy each have eight, while Buju Banton remains part of a stacked dancehall and reggae lineup that keeps the category race firmly in the spotlight.

For Shatta Wale, the nomination carries momentum from a big 2025 run at the 42nd IRAWMA, where he swept all three categories he entered: Best African Dancehall Entertainer, Best Music Video for Killa Ji Mi, and Best Crossover Song for Commando with Bounty Killer. That haul took his IRAWMA total to nine trophies, making him the most awarded Ghanaian artist in the history of the awards, according to Ghanaian entertainment reporting.

His 2026 nod again places him in Best African Dancehall Entertainer, alongside artists from Uganda, Kenya, Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Ghana. That field shows how far the category has moved from a narrow regional lane into a pan-African contest with real visibility across the reggae and dancehall world.

The bigger picture matters here. IRAWMA founder Dr. Ephraim Martin has long tied the awards to the lack of reggae recognition that existed when he launched the event in 1982 in Chicago. This year’s theme, JAMAICA RISE, and the broader mission of Bringing Nations Together Through Music and Culture fit the same push: keep reggae and dancehall open to the artists shaping it from Kingston to Accra and beyond.

The 43rd staging will also salute the music’s pillars. Burning Spear will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, while Mavado is set for a special lifetime honor, a pairing that puts legacy and current star power on the same stage. For Shatta Wale, the result on May 17 will travel far beyond awards-season trivia, because a win here would underline that African dancehall is no longer knocking at the door.