Shaggy was set to record a second album with Sting before the pandemic ruined their plans.
Shaggy
The 52-year-old star - who released '44/876' with Sting in 2018 - has revealed that his new record, 'Christmas In The Islands', was originally supposed to be a joint effort with his showbiz pal.
He told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column: "This started as an idea with Sting and I. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to do a Christmas carols album in reggae?’
"I started working on some of the tracks in March and then the pandemic happened.
"But I thought, ‘Oh that’ll be over in two months and then I’ll link up with Sting and he’ll bring all the sauce’. Then it kept going and he is stuck in England, so the album ended up being a Shaggy Christmas."
Sting, 69, previously admitted that their musical partnership came together by accident.
He revealed: "It was very much an accident of just meeting and making a record together, just for fun, and then making another one to see it wasn’t a fluke – and then making the record piecemeal.
"After three weeks or so of this process we realised we had something that seemed substantial, and so we gave ourselves a deadline. We said let’s see where we are in three weeks, and if we have a record then we have a record."
He also suggested that their friendship comes across in their music.
Sting said: "I think there is a joy that comes from the tracks that is palpable, and that’s really the reason why we did it. If it has any further life then we’ll be very happy, but even if it doesn’t then it was still well worth doing."