Maxi Priest

Maxi Priest is genuinely one of those artists who doesn't get nearly enough credit for what he actually pulled off — born in Lewisham to a Jamaican family, he grew up absorbing the Caribbean community's pulse in South London and turned it into something entirely his own. His whole thing was blending reggae's warm, unhurried groove with proper R&B smoothness before that fusion even had a name, and he made it feel effortless. "Close to You" is still one of those songs that just hits right no matter when you put it on, and the fact that he was charting internationally while most reggae acts stayed regional tells you how real his crossover instinct was. Oh, and the man also played football competitively — singer and footballer, somehow — which honestly just adds to the mystique. A quietly underrated legend.

Name (English)

Maxi Priest

Name (Japanese)

マキシ・プリースト

Reading

まきし・ぷりーすと

Born

June 10, 1961 (age 65)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Ox

Origin

Lewisham, United Kingdom

Occupation

singer / association football player / songwriter / musician

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://www.maxipriest.com
• Xhttps://x.com/MaxiPriest
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%82%AD%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BB%E3%83%97%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88

Tags

• singer
• association football player
• songwriter

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.