Snow (musician)

Snow, 2019

Snow (* the 30th October 1969 in Toronto , Ontario as Darrin Kenneth O'Brien ) is a Canadian reggae toaster . With his most successful song Informer he reached first place in the charts in the USA and Germany in the spring of 1993. With eight million pieces sold, Informer is one of the most successful ragga singles in music history.

life and career

O'Brien grew up in a largely Irish-Canadian neighborhood of Toronto . The first records he heard were by Kiss , Ozzy Osbourne , Queen and The Police from his mother's collection. In his youth, increasing numbers of Jamaican immigrants moved to the area, through which he came into contact with reggae , dub and dancehall records. He himself got used to the patois , Jamaican English, among his friends at the time and under the influence of music .

During this time he came into constant conflict with the police. He was charged with murder under questionable circumstances and acquitted - this is the story he takes up in Informer . While on parole, MC Shan discovered him in New York City and produced his first maxi single with him, which became a worldwide hit. The last verse in this song was rapped by MC Shan himself.

Snow was convicted of assault shortly after completing his first album, 12 Inches of Snow . He saw Informer's release and success in prison. After eight months he was released from prison, left North America and traveled extensively across Europe.

In early 1995 his second album Murder Love was released , but it was only able to convince in Japan. The albums Justuss (1997), Cooler Conditions (1999) and Mind on the Moon (2000) should no longer follow the success of the first album.

His next album was Two Hands Clapping , which was released on November 19, 2002 on the Virgin Music Canada label. At least with the single Legal he achieved a top 20 hit in his home country after almost ten years. Producers of Two Hands Clapping were Laney Stewart and Brent Setterington.

Since the end of 2004 he has been allowed to enter the USA again.

In September 2014, O'Brien released the collaboration track Shame with Mykal Rose and has lived in Jamaica ever since .

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	CA
1993	12 inches of snow	DE5 (21 weeks) DE	AT7 (14 weeks) AT	CH10 (13 weeks) CH	UK41 (4 weeks) UK	US5 platinum (38 weeks)US	CA3 × 3 Triple platinum (… Where.)CA	First published: January 19, 1993
2000	Mind on the moon	-	-	-	-	-	CA61 (... weeks) CA	First published: October 2000

More albums

• 1993: remixes
• 1995: Murder Love
• 1997: Justuss
• 1999: Cooler Conditions
• 2002: Two Hands Clapping

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	CA
1993	Informer 12 inches of snow	DE1 platinum (23 weeks)DE	AT2 gold (17 weeks)AT	CH1 (19 weeks) CH	UK2 silver (15 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (25 weeks)US	CA9 (... weeks) CA
	Girl I've Been Hurt 12 Inches of Snow	-	-	-	UK48 (2 weeks) UK	US19 (17 weeks) US	CA28 (... weeks) CA	First published: April 1993
	Lonely Monday Morning 12 Inches of Snow	DE43 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	-	First published: July 1993
	Uhh in You 12 Inches of Snow	-	-	-	UK67 (1 week) UK	-	-	First published: August 1993
1995	Sexy Girl Murder Love	-	-	-	-	-	CA80 (... weeks) CA
2000	Everybody Wants to Be Like You Cooler Conditions / Mind on the Moon	-	-	-	-	-	CA2 (... weeks) CA
2002	Legal two hands clapping	-	-	-	-	-	CA13 (... weeks) CA
2019	Con calma	DE6th gold (34 weeks)DE	AT7 (30 weeks) AT	CH2 (45 weeks) CH	UK66 silver (10 weeks)UK	US22nd × 4 Quadruple Diamond + Platinum (Latin) (25 weeks)US	CA6th × 3 Triple platinum (29 weeks)CA	First published: January 25, 2019 Daddy Yankee feat. Snow

More singles

• 1993: runway
• 1994: Stallion
• 1994: Si Wi Dem Nuh Know We
• 1995: Anything for You
• 1996: Boom Boom Boogie
• 1996: Me and Joey (feat.Joey Boy)
• 1996: Steedly Woa
• 1997: If This World Were Mine
• 1999: Someday Somehow
• 2002: Dancin Alone
• 2014: Shame
• 2018: Get You The Moon (Kina feat.Snow, UK:silver, US: platinum)

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Denmark 2019: for the single Con calma  Japan 1997: for the album Justuss 1997: for the album The Greatest Hits of Snow  Netherlands 1993: for the single Informer  Spain 1993: for the album 12 Inches of Snow Platinum record  Belgium 2019: for the single Con calma  Japan 1994: for the album 12 Inches of Snow 1995: for the album Murder Love  New Zealand 1993: for the single Informer  Poland 2019: for the single Con calma  Portugal 2019: for the single Con calma

3 × gold record  Mexico 2020: for the single Get You The Moon 2 × platinum record  Australia 1993: for the single Informer  Brazil 2019: for the single Con calma 4 × platinum record  Italy 2019: for the single Con calma 6 × platinum record  Spain 2020: for the single Con calma Diamond record  France 2019: for the single Con calma

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	diamond	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	-	2 × platinum2	-	140,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	-	-	platinum1	-	40,000	ultratop.be
Brazil (PMB)	-	-	2 × platinum2	-	80,000	pro-musicabr.org.br
Denmark (IFPI)	-	gold1	-	-	45,000	ifpi.dk
Germany (BVMI)	-	gold1	platinum1	-	700,000	musikindustrie.de
France (SNEP)	-	-	-	diamond1	333,333	snepmusique.com
Italy (FIMI)	-	-	4 × platinum4th	-	200,000	fimi.it
Japan (RIAJ)	-	2 × gold2	2 × platinum2	-	600,000	riaj.or.jp
Canada (MC)	-	-	6 × platinum6th	-	540,000	musiccanada.com
Mexico (AMPROFON)	-	gold1	platinum1	-	90,000	amprofon.com.mx
New Zealand (RMNZ)	-	-	platinum1	-	15,000	nztop40.co.nz
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	gold1	-	-	50,000	nvpi.nl
Austria (IFPI)	-	gold1	-	-	25,000	ifpi.at
Poland (ZPAV)	-	-	platinum1	-	20,000	bestsellery.zpav.pl
Portugal (AFP)	-	-	platinum1	-	10,000	Individual evidence
Spain (Promusicae)	-	gold1	6 × platinum6th	-	290,000	elportaldemusica.es
United States (RIAA)	-	-	4 × platinum4th	4 × diamond4th	3,580,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	3 × silver3	-	-	-	600,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	3 × silver3	8 × gold8th	32 × platinum32	5 × diamond5

Web links

• Works by and about Snow in the catalog of the German National Library
• Snow at Allmusic (English)
• Snow at Discogs (English)
• Discography on rateyourmusic.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: Singles albums US / CA
2. ^ Platinum for Con calma in Portugal
3. ↑ 2 × platinum for Informer in Australia