Performances rock at EME awards

Sadeke Brooks, Staff Reporter

It was a night of fewer awards and more performances at the Excellence in Music and Entertainment Awards with Lady Saw, Eve and Wayne Wonder being a few of the standout acts at the event that was held at Devon House, St Andrew, on Saturday evening.

Lady Saw introduced her artiste Shenell, who did one song. "Now as you know, a big people time," Lady Saw said, before introducing rapper Eve. They performed He's At My House that appeared on Lady Saw's latest album. The dancehall artiste was her usual raunchy self, while Eve was full of attitude. With an energetic performance, both cemented themselves as two of the best performers for the night.

Shortly after, Eve received the International Friend of Reggae Award saying, "No matter where in the world I go, Jamaica is the best place I've ever been to. I feel like an honorary Jamaican."

Singing I Still Believe, Wayne Wonder entertained the audience as he walked down the aisle and sang his heart out while being followed by numerous photographers. When he went back on stage, Wonder held nothing back as he voiced his displeasure about the many artistes who were absent from the award show. "A ediat ting dat," he said. He went on to sing some of his older songs and even included one of Buju Banton's songs in his performance. "Unuh fi tek di ting serious," he said as he was about to exit the stage.

Although something that was mentioned earlier by Etana, Shaggy also spoke about the no-show of many artistes. "Mi just waan Wayne Wonder know seh mi come collect da one ya," Shaggy laughingly said. "A Jamaica ting dis, unuh fi come support unuh local artistes and local music people."

Some of the people who were not present to collect their awards on stage were Vybz Kartel, Don Corleon, Gyptian, I-Octane, producer Notnice, Bounty Killer and Beenie Man.

Energetic start

Previously, there was a somewhat energetic start to the show with Dance Xpressions at 9:15 p.m., more than one hour later than the scheduled 8 p.m. start. They paid tribute to the acts who were nominated in the Artiste of the Decade category like Elephant Man, Sean Paul, Sizzla, Beenie Man, Shaggy, Bounty Killer, Luciano, Buju Banton, Junior Gong, Beres Hammond, Marcia Griffiths and Wayne Wonder.

Then, there was the dubpoet group Nomaddz doing Trouble Deh Ya, in which they were expressive while throwing an expletive in the mix. Singing about the death of a man at the hands of police, they got the audience laughing when they said, "dem try to aim at him foot but him head get in the way."

Not a perfect fit to the occasion, but there was also some modelling with outfits from Grandeur, Biggie and Romeich. The men in the audience seemed to enjoy seeing the women strut their wares.

This was followed by more tributes. On this occasion, respect was paid to artistes who passed recently like J.O.E (Lil Joe), Copper Cat, Gregory Isaacs, Voicemail's Oneil Edwards and Sugar Minnott. This was done in the form of dance, video presentation and singing.

It was after this point that the first award was announced, approximately one hour after the show started. Nonetheless, there was a less than commendable performance from the Downsound Records crew, including Toya and Harry Toddler. They were followed by Khalil.

However, there was a mishap when the nominees for the Gospel Artiste of the Year should have been announced. Eventually, Prodigal Son was announced as the winner but the hosts moved along swiftly with the show, overlooking him. It was after Leba Hibberts sang All I Want Is You that he finally got the chance to go on stage to receive it and express his gratitude.

There were also other glitches with the sound. At some points, the music was too loud and there was some level of feedback coming through the speakers. In addition, the show still suffers from organisational issues, as it was not smooth-flowing, both on stage and on the red carpet that had a huge build-up of traffic, photographers and cameramen hustling to get their shots, and people staying too long.

Poor organisation was also evident, based on the number of times Trina's name was mentioned before she actually took the stage. When she eventually did, she performed songs like Here We Go Again and Single Again. She was followed by Etana who sang People Talk and was well received by the audience.