‘Accolades’

The recently concluded Accolade Music Awards… should it not have another name? This is like saying Award Music Awards. So for starters, if there is a Guyana Music Awards next year, the organisers might want to look at a name that is not redundant or simply calling it Accolades. Okay, we broke our first vow, which was not to offer any criticism about the show, even if it were constructive. But the truth is, the show put on at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) last Sunday night was good. Mind you, it was not perfect, far from it. But those who would have paid your money — after the ticket price was cut in half — would have gotten your money’s worth.

It is not every day that we get to see some of Guyana’s best in the music arena perform at their best, at a venue that was transformed to look almost as grand as the performances. Kudos to the set designer and builders, whoever they are.

Some of the performances were good and some could be described as exceptional. The opening number was good until one of the singers almost burst our eardrums with her shrieking. She did not sound all bad but the screaming just did not cut it. And although she can be described as a veteran in the music business, two singers who have been in it for less than half the time she put in, put her to shame.

It was a red carpet affair; the carpet was very red it appeared to be almost new. You got the buzz as soon as you stepped out of your car; men in black suits opening car doors and excited people posing on the red carpet. Dessia Braithwaite flitted around conducting interviews with the “celebrities”; we felt the yellow number she wore for the pre-award show at Pegasus on Friday night should have been held back for Sunday night.

We mingled, nodded, drank in the atmosphere; were shocked beyond words at some of the outfits people chose to wear, but hey we’re not the fashion police. Sometimes we were forced to turn away so that our facial expression would not give away that shock.

There were a few very funny moments. One was when a young woman lost one of her shoe heels. (Girl, we knew you were embarrassed as you stood on the stairs clinging to your date and looking down at the silver heel that had disconnected itself from your shoe. The lesson here is that you should wear good quality shoes to these events. It is one of three things, the shoes were cheap, or old, or you bought them at a boutique that had them on its shelves for so long they became dry rot.) Poor thing, she was forced to leave the event, while her date sat in the front row and enjoyed the show.

Then there was the band member on stage, who was viciously chewing gum. (This may have been funny for a few seconds but after that we wanted to hit you over the head.)

What was not funny was the organisers bestowing a posthumous award on the Mighty V J and not remembering to observe a minute of silence for the well-known, departed calypsonian. And to add insult to injury Mike Fung of the Mingles Sound Machine had the audience stand and observe a minute’s silence for Jamaican band leader Byron Lee. Bonny Alves saved face when he asked us the audience to do the same for VJ. However, this was just before Alves presented an award, about halfway through the show.

And what happened to the pre-taped speech by Minister of Tourism, Manniram Prashad. We saw the video; he appeared to be talking; but we heard not a word.
President Bharrat Jagdeo had us waiting for him for over half of an hour and he was a no-show.

Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud turned up instead; a sign of things to come?

We have witnessed his eloquence in court, but had no idea that Attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes was also witty. He certainly did an exceptional job as the master of ceremonies for the night. His co-host, former beauty queen now lawyer, Odessa Phillips could have done without the accent, which made us cringe every time she opened her mouth – it was so false. (Come on, girl, there was no need for that.)

As for the presentation of awards, we agreed with most of them. Adrian Dutchin won the songwriter of the year award for “Celebration”, which we feel was misjudged. Maybe he deserved the artiste of the year award but as an unapologetic fan of First Born, we would have liked to see them get that one too.

Meanwhile, if we could have returned to the NCC tonight, just to see most of the same performances we would not hesitate. We’re still singing “Lilowattie” after witnessing Young Bill Rogers’s electrifying presentation of it.

Finally, we would give the organisers an Accolade for their effort. We’re watching to see what will happen next. (thescene@stabroeknews.com)