Veteran dancehall producer, Barry O’Hare died at University Hospital of the West Indies, in St Andrew on Saturday after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week.
A lifetime friend of O’Hare, stage technician Jeffrey Brown, confirmed the death while speaking with The Jamaican Observer. “He died this morning. I’m not sure of the exact time,” he said while outlining that O’Hare had an underlying medical condition that may have led to his untimely passing. Brown said, “He had an underlying sickness otherwise from that. Mi vex bad. He is one of the best things ever on the face of the earth.”
Barry O’Hare was much revered in the entertainment industry for his work, both in-studio as well as mega stage show productions. The 56-year-old has worked with many of Jamaica’s greatest entertainers including, Tanya Stephens, Diana King, Yami Bolo, Jack Radics, Prezident Brown, Mikey Spice, Morgan Heritage, Shaggy, Sean Paul, Beres Hammond, Third World, Burning Spear, among others.
In a tribute, Shaggy called Barry O’Hare a lifelong friend. “Woke up today to some sad news,” Shaggy wrote. “Lost our dear brother @barry_ohare_jamaica. Barry was my engineer’ and a great guy, he was instrumental in helping to establish shaggy and friends especially on the technical side and engineered a lot of the shows , we toured together for years , he made us sound great night after nights. Thank you for your friendship your talent and love! Rest well my brother R.I.P. condolences to his family. Ps. F@#k 2020!”
On Saturday, Jamaica recorded seven more COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total to 67.
The country also recorded 230 new infections with ages ranging from 1 day to 104 years, increasing the overall figure to 4,988 cases with 3,489 of them being active.
