Last year when Qshan Deya performed at the Sunflower Festival in Waidhofen, Austria, he was backed by the House Of Riddim Band, a homegrown unit that has worked with reggae’s elite artistes including Mykal Rose, Luciano, Tanya Stephens, Turbulence and Jah Mason.

While on stage, their tight coordination resonated with the roots-reggae singer, who is from St. Vincent And The Grenadines in the Eastern Caribbean. Within days, they sent him rhythm tracks to write songs for a possible album.

Those manifested in ‘Reggae Ambassador’, Qshan Deya’s fourth album which was released on May 9. It contains 14 songs, most of which are hard-hitting social commentary, like ‘Paradigm Shift’ and ‘Vatican’.

“I never had any concept for this album project until I was inspired after listening to the numerous amount of riddims that were sent by the producer,” he recalled. “I immediately started recording a few days after my performance while on tour and completed the rest of the vocals for the album at home in Accra, Ghana at my home studio, Mystik Productionz in 2025.”

Two singles have been released from the album to date — ‘So In Love’ in March and the title track in April. An official launch of ‘Reggae Ambassador’ took place at the second Sunflower Festival in Haag, a town in northeastern Austria.

‘Reggae Ambassador’ was released one year after ‘Freedom’ Street’, Qshan Deya’s previous album. ‘Journey’, which came out in 2001 and ‘Love Governs Us’ which came out 13 years later, are his other albums.

Qshan Deya was born and raised in St. Vincent, a banana-rich island where soca is the sound of choice. Pop-reggae singer Kevin Lyttle, best known for the 2003 hit song ‘Turn Me On’, and soca artiste Skinny Fabulous are two of the country’s top acts.

The Afrocentric tones of roots-reggae was more attractive to the young Qshan Deya. Migrating to the United States over 25 years ago, he settled in New York City, one of the biggest markets for Jamaican music.

For the past two years, he has lived in Ghana, a hotspot for Afrobeats and reggae. He feels right at home.

“I decided to go back to my roots in Ghana on May 23, 2023. The decision has always been my desire to fulfill repatriation back to the land of my ancestors of which my Quashie family is direct descendants to the Gua We people, the Ga tribe, first settlers in Accra Ghana,” he said. “It has been very welcoming and I was well-received with an outdooring (rebirth) ceremony for my new name Nii Adom K Quashie, meaning royalty and grace, by the elders in Ajumako Osu, Accra, Ghana.”