Shaggy Reflects on 25 Years of It Wasn’t Me and New Music With Sting

It’s been 25 years since Shaggy dropped “It Wasn’t Me” — and he is still clearing up the meaning of the iconic song.

“At the end of the song, it apologizes,” Shaggy, 56, told Us Weekly about “It Wasn’t Me” being an “anti-cheating” anthem during an exclusive interview ahead of his performance at the 3rd Annual Nassau Paradise Island Wine and Food Festival on Saturday, March 15. “It’s a conversation between two people. One is telling one [about cheating], and the other one is like, ‘Yeah, I’m not gonna take your advice.’ And at the end of it, he says, ‘I’m gonna go apologize because you’re an idiot.’”

“It Wasn’t Me” was released in November 2000, and according to Shaggy, fans still “just blurt out ‘it wasn’t me’ all the time” when they run into him.

“It’s everywhere,” he said when asked whether he’s ever heard the track in a surprising place. “It keeps coming up. Nothing surprises me.”

As for how he will mark the upcoming 25th anniversary of the song, Shaggy told Us, “We have an album coming out — Hot Shot 2025.” (Hot Shot is the name of the studio album that included hits “It Wasn’t Me” and “Angel.”)

Following the release of his new track with Sting, “Til a Mawnin,” he’s hinting that there will be more from the unlikely duo, too.

“That should be in the works pretty soon,” he said of a second full-length album with The Police frontman, 73.

“I’m still figuring out why it works, but it does. Him and me together is a chemistry that actually connects. So we just kind of roll with it,” he told Us, adding that people may be surprised to learn that Sting is “super funny.”

“A lot of people think he’s a very square, straight guy, but he’s one of the funniest people,” he said.

Shaggy told Us that performing with Sting at a separate food festival is actually what inspired him to hit the stage at the 2025 Nassau Paradise Island Wine and Food Festival, where he performed a medley of hits — including “It Wasn’t Me,” “Angel,” “Boombastic” and “Hey Sexy Lady” — at the festival’s iconic Jerk Jam.

“This is the Bahamas, my home away from home,” he said. “All of the energy, all the music that is made is part of the soundtracks of everybody’s lives. It’s not very hard [to agree to this].”

When asked about his setlist, Shaggy noted that “these songs are gifts” that “bring joy and change people’s lives.”

Being from Jamaica has had an undeniable influence on Shaggy’s music. “Caribbean people have an ease of life. Wake up, go to the beach, fish, carnival — it’s a lifestyle,” he said.

During his time in the Bahamas, Shaggy dined at Michael White’s Paranza and made sure to have plenty of his favorite dish. “I’m a sucker for conch salad,” he said. “I had some today and I’ll probably have some tomorrow.”

Last year’s Jerk Jam headliner, Wyclef Jean, was also a big fan of conch salad.

“The conch out here — that conch salad is addictive. The rice — let me tell everybody something, man, I OD’d on that rice. I ain’t gonna lie to y’all,” Jean told Us at the time. “The jerk chicken out here was amazing. But, the conch … this is the best conch in the world.”

The Nassau Paradise Island Wine and Food Festival supports the Atlantis Blue Project Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation that fosters the preservation and conservation of coral reefs and animals in the Bahamas, and is held annually at the Atlantis resort. Food influencers from New York City, Texas and Georgia joined guests who traveled from all over the country to try dishes by celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay, Kardea Brown, Katie Lee, Michael Symon, Alon Shaya, JJ Johnson, José Andrés and Michael White and master mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim.