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In The Spotlight, November 2007Kingston, Jamaica, November 2007
REGGAE ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS
It’s not too early to announce that the first REGGAE ACADEMY AWARDS ceremony is set to unfold on Sunday February 24th, 2008 at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston. The REGGAE ACADEMY is a project of the Recording Industry Association of Jamaica (RIAJam) under leaders Clevie Brownie and Lloyd Stanbury and membership is made up of music producers, vocalists, songwriters, music video producers, media representatives, artist managers and agents.
This week the Academy’s members were sent Entry Forms for nominations in several categories for the Reggae Academy Awards, promised to be ‘a first class international music awards event for Reggae and Dancehall’. According to chairman Stanbury, plans are at a very advanced stage for the event. The design and technical elements of the show are being worked out, and several top artists have already signed contracts to appear as performers and award presenters on the show, including Shaggy, Sean Paul, Morgan Heritage, Elephant Man, Diana King, Ky-Mani Marley, Ce’Cile, Etana, Assassin, and Voice Mail.
In addition to the artists already confirmed the organisers are also looking at a number of overseas based artists who have been involved in Reggae and Dancehall music such as Gentleman out of Germany, Sinead O’Conner, Sean Kingston and Collie Budz. Buju Banton is also expected to join the list of acts slated to appear as performers and presenters at the event.
The REGGAE ACADEMY AWARDS will be the final event in a 4-day series of activities in Kingston which will include music business conferences, a UWI Reggae Studies Unit seminar and live performance showcases for emerging artists. The project has already received the endorsement of the Jamaica Tourist Board and Jamaica Trade and Invest/JAMPRO. Presumably, the new Minister of Culture will soon add her official endorsement.
The reggae industry has long needed a first-class Awards show. This could be it, as clearly next February will be Reggae Month in Jamaica.
SUPPORT LACKING FOR REGGAE IN JAMAICA?
Which leads me to ask: do Jamaican people truly support our indigenous music industry? We may look at the large crowds at reggae shows featuring the latest hit makers, but we don’t buy their music -- we only go to a show, spend one or two thousand Dollars, and that’s usually the biggest contribution most Jamaicans make to an artist’s levelihood. Sure, the artists get paid for performing, but that’s not as big as people buying your music in the street every day.
Artists recognize this, so as soon as their hit song has done the rounds of all the stage shows they can get, they high tail it out of Jamaica to tour Europe, America and Japan where their records are bought by the thousands who attend their shows. Can’t blame them. Can’t blame Jamaica either, we’re a poor people with little or no disposable income.
But if we don’t start buying our own music, we’re going to continue losing our artists to overseas companies who can ensure their income. Another scenario is that foreign artists like Germany’s Gentleman, Italian-Jamaican Albarosie and Israel’s Mahityasu (who’s already on his way to an international Reggae No.1) are going to start winning Reggae Grammys just because of sales volumes.
And a word to the artists: it’s not about running away on tour. We need to see artists giving back more to the Jamaican community in ways that would make people buy their records as treasures to be handed down to generations. I’ve always thought that one way children would easily learn their times tables, would be if some reggae artists got together and composed a song for each times table from 1 to 10. Kids would learn as easily as they learn the hitlyrics. What about an artists’ charity to give back to the ghettoes from which many of them came? Stuff like this needs to happen to re-calibrate the relationship.
Or else all that will be left will be the glitzy concerts where working women with salary-filled purses scream, crowd the stage and line up for foreign acts like Michael Bolton, Air Supply and L.L. Cool J to sign their CDs.
