“It’s the music we’ve created, which has reached every corner of the world,” said Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Olivia Grange, in statements collected by the BBC after the decision was made public.

Reggae began to become popular among Jamaicans in the 1960s, thanks to works by artists such as Toots and the Maytals, Peter Tosh or Bob Marley, and since then, especially from the hand of this last artist, has come to the whole world drawing inspiration from the work of musicians of other origins and styles.

When Unesco has made its decision public, it has stressed the importance of reggae for resistance, love and humanization in the face of injustices, which has been at the same time, according to the UN agency, “rational, spiritual, socio-political and sensual”.

In practical terms, the declaration of an intangible cultural heritage implies that the Members of the United Nations should protect in particular the terms listed above.

Previously there were folk music, dances and forms of communication from different countries, among them from stateless nations, such as chanting polifonic corso “cantu in paghjella”.

Several cultural expressions of the Basque Country have also been proposed, such as Bertsolarism, the carnivals of Ipar Euskal Herria, the Sanfermines of Pamplona or the Aste Nagusia of Bilbao.