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All set for Guyana Artistic Music Awards

On Sunday local and Diaspora-based Guyanese music and entertainers are set to gather at the National Cultural Centre for the Guyana Artistic Music Awards, GAMA.

All told more than 90 nominees will be in contention in 34 categories for a GAMA crystal that honours their work and contribution to the development of Guyanese music repertoire.

Contrary to popular belief singers will not be the only ones collecting crystals as actors and Comedians are among the nominees.

GAMA Chief Executive Officer, Sherlon Shepherd, amidst his call for Guyanese artistes to come out and show support for their own, reiterated that the event is aimed at showcasing Guyanese talent musically while saying thank you to the people that make life more worthwhile and stress free.

“Come out and support your own and experience a packed programme of quality entertainment from Guyanese at home and from countries such as Canada and the USA as well as from some Caribbean countries,” Shepherd said.

More importantly, the event is focussed on creating a network amongst Guyanese entertainers in the Diaspora and encourage local artiste to stick to the task of insuring that the Guyanese voice and creativity is kept alive.

The categories up for contention include Best Soul, RnB, Hip Hop, Dancehall Reggae, Culture Reggae, Soca, Chutney, Gospel and Calypso as well as folk. There are also awards for comedians, community workers, entrepreneurs, music producers and engineers as well as promoters and editors.

But there will also be lifetime achievement awards for Eddie Grant and Habeeb Khan, while Natural Black is this year’s international music ambassador. This publication hears that First Born will be among the entertainers up for awards.

The GAMA CEO said without bias based on the selection process, that most Guyanese artistes whose music moved from national to international airtime over the years, will be honoured.

The younger artistes such as Timeka Marshall and Shelly G, as well as Tennecia DeFreitas and Vanilla are also among the nominees, as is Alabama.

The winners will all take home customized GAMA crystals.

The other GAMA committee members include founder Randolph Waterman, CEO of “Randolph’s Building and Renovation Company”; Elton Joseph, CEO of “Nortel Upholstery”; and Andrew Francis, CEO of “Ark Plumbing Inc.”

The GAMA is a production of the Guyana Canadian Artistic Entertainment group GCAE and was created after the President and other members of GCAE realized that many “Guyanese artists living abroad had and are making strides in the entertainment industry without anyone saying thank you or honouring them and we created this event to honour Guyanese artists worldwide,” Shepherd said.

He added, “After presenting the first GAMA in Toronto, Canada, we realized that we were only connecting with Guyanese artists in Canada and the USA, when there are Guyanese artists in many different countries making their mark on the Entertainment scene and so we decided to include Guyanese artists from other countries too to make this a truly Guyanese event.”

The GCAE CEO said, too, that his committee decided that Guyana is the fittest place to stage the Awards because “it is strictly a Guyanese Awards show and we wanted to honour not only the Guyanese artists living abroad but also the Guyanese artists living in Guyana.

Having so far experienced the unwillingness of corporate Guyana to support this venture Shepherd refuses to conclude that “Guyanese don’t believe in their own because the artistes are all here as a sign of support for networking and honouring our own and it’s now up to the public to come out to the National Culture Centre on Sunday April 25 and show solidarity”.

Meanwhile several other Guyana-born artistes based in Canada and the USA have arrived and are optimistic that they will get the local support to build a “Guyanese music network”.

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GT&T Kids Stage – Second Quarter Finals

Much hype is being created by the Cellink Kidstage contenders showcasing that Guyanese tots and teens are as equally talented as their senior counterparts. The result is that the organisers are poised to take the event a notch higher.

Quarterfinal competitions started on April 10. The second was tagged on April 17 and the other is carded for April 24.

On April 17, a most memorable quarter final was staged at the Theatre Guild and those who competed in the categories out of Essequibo and Georgetown were most competitive. These 15 contestants are currently awaiting public votes to determine who moves forward to the semi finals.

The judge’s scores make up 80 percent of the total, the studio audience and the public have 10 percent each to contribute to their favourite contestant.  Members of the public have every Sunday after the programme is broadcast until Thursday night to vote for their favourite performer. To vote, members of the public can text the contestants’ number to 620-kids (5437).

However, patrons in attendance for the live show are required to write the names and contestant number at the back of their tickets and submit these after the show.

Cellink Kidstage, a talented programme for children between the ages of 4 and 14, is aired every Sunday evening at 20:00 h on NCN channel 11.

Performed in the 8 to10 category last Saturday were some exceptional pieces such as Prospective Beauty Queen done by Alliah Corlette, and African Drumming done by Osei Clarke among others.

In the 11 to14 category performances included patriotic presentations like Without the Essequibo, done by Kevon Lewis; Berbician Schemona Trinidad presented After God’s own heart and Essequibian Anuradha Frank presented her interpretation of an Indian song titled Heartbeat.

After the second quarterfinal competition, children from that segment are anxiously awaiting the results. Some have even commenced rehearsals with high hopes of entering the semi finals which starts on May 1, 2010.

The Cellink Kidstage preliminary winners are Teryka Mohabir, Shani Bellamy, Children of Paradise, Shaquille Boyd, The Cambridge Family, Tamara Smith, Alpha Harry, Naomi Alsopp and Carlissa Blair from Linden.

They will each receive $5, 000 and an on stage place for the third quarterfinals on Saturday at the Theatre Guild, Kingston, commencing at 13:00hrs

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Sonia Noel’s model search begins

ModelsThe road to the staging of Sonia Noel’s annual ‘Model Search’, began on Thursday evening at the poolside of the Tower Hotel on Main Street. Headed by Sonia Noel the reality Television search goes beyond finding Guyana’s next top male and female models to also finding new stylists and designers.

Donning mostly black attire the model hopefuls were introduced to the public as a prelude to what Noel and her committee is promising will be “a most memorable and entertaining ride.” While there were some physical misfits among the group there were also a few diamonds in the rough that made their debut. All told there are 13 men in contention for the top prize that includes opportunities to model on international stages. The lot included one popular basket ball player Tyrone Hamid, a few ripped models, several over made up men and others who took to cosmetics well. The others in contention for the 2010 Guyana’s top male model title are Anthony Stayman, Stayton Paul, Darren Mc Almont, Steven Bagot, Javier Boucher, Osafa Dos Santos, Jason Shurland, Germaine Adonis, Steve Merai, Esau Humphrey, Dellon Renee and Ryan Berkeley.

There are 14 ladies vying for the coveted title of female top model 2010 including Alana Phoenix, Alicia Kirton, Amanda Hackett, Alisa Williams, Amanda Hackett, Alisa Williams, Gerecia Francis, Jo-Ann Tracey, Melvern John, Okeema Humphrey, Patricia Forde, Shivonna Corrdus, Jenelle Dougall and Shevon Cotty.

The lot which paraded at the poolside included a full figured bunch that will certainly not be an easy walk over especially the most bubbly Lucianna James who despite her full figure strutted with erect shoulders and personality that sounded a ‘watch out’ warning to all ladies. She exuded such confidence that overshadowed the stretch marks on her shoulders while there was one model whose choice of attire emphasized her need for serious leg work in the gym.

There too, were a few full figured ladies who are certainly serious about redefining the stereotypical European look of a slender leggy lady on the cat walk to one of equally if not more zing that says ‘big is beautiful too’.  The plus sized models in contention for the new addition to the competition are Tristana Roberts, Pamela Vaugh, Lydia Evans, Adeola Field, Okesa Lynch, Latoya Whitehead and Michon Sukhoo-Perta.

But there are a few who will certainly be competing down to last wire with personality and posture as they showed with ease that they mean business on the catwalk.

Noel assures that “rigorous training will intensify” under the stewardship of Trinidadian Richard Younge and some will be eliminated.  She also let up that the designers; stylist and Chefs have already been given their first challenge.

Noel assures too that elimination for the models will begin next week but noted that the Chefs and designers will not be immediately elimination.

Those hoping to keep updated on the reality show can catch it from next month on NCN and Hjtv TV-72 for six Weeks.

The next major event ‘Cutting style’ will be staged on June 27 and on that occasion designers will be paired with a Chef to produce an evening of Creativity. The events final staging is set for July 4 at the Pegasus.

The eight designers are Jonelle Cameron, Bethani Chester, David Clarke (the converted former assistant from the Facts N Roses camp), Sharon Gittens, Nataisia John, Micheal Kellman, Jamal LaRose, and Candacy Mclean.

The Culinary Arts Chefs making their debut in the new competition category are Shawna Mc Rae, Samantha Moseley, Gail Davidson, Mohamed W Karim, Rhea Sandy,  Lynne Inniss, Adrian Alleyne and Shem Hinds.

By Mondale Smith