Glitz and glamour at full-house Sterling Gospel Music Awards
Published:Monday | October 9, 2023 | 12:08 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Last Saturday night, inside the Swallowfield Chapel in Kingston, unfolded what is surely gospel music’s biggest night-out, the Sterling Gospel Music Awards (SGMA), and so successful was the staging that the organisers are already contemplating securing a bigger venue for 2024.
Capturing the titles of the only national gospel awards show in Jamaica and also the only red carpet ‘Grammy’ style event in gospel, nominees and patrons alike went all out to put their best fashion foot forward. The theme was black and white, and this was evident from the number of women and men who were adorned in the colours and wore them with much elegance and distinction.
Unfortunate for one presenter, he didn’t seem to have received the memo about the colour code and he was bold in green. Admitting that he wasn’t informed, he smoothly carried off the “blunder”.
“Is Minister Grange in the house?” he asked politely, to much laughter. Yes, she was, but she was not in her Jamaica Labour Party colour, the minister was elegant in black.
As much as the eye-catching outfits threatened to dominate the night, and it looked as if some patrons spent hours preening on the red carpet and taking pictures, the awards show had much to offer. In fact, some of the local secular awards shows could ask the SGMA team for a tip or two. Now in its much-celebrated seventh year, the show has found favour in the eyes of local and overseas-based fans and, for the first time, the voting numbers reached a whopping 82,958 individual votes from Jamaica, the Caribbean, United States, Canada, the UK, Africa and other parts of the world.
Fans of gospel music bought their tickets and showed up to support their artistes and throughout the evening loud cheers were heard when the nominees in the various categories were announced, and even louder screams when their favoured winner won the prize. Special ‘forwards’ were reserved for the performers, many of whom told the audience to get up out of their seats and clap, sing and dance.
Founder and director, Basillia Barnaby-Cuff, could hardly contain her joy and spoke from the heart.
“I am just in total awe; I am so grateful to God. My mind was blown this year ... absolutely blown. This year’s staging was magnificent. Our team, our sponsors, everybody who had a hand in this year’s awards really pulled together. I am still basking, I am on cloud nine ... or cloud seven, since it’s our seventh year. I think this year was our best staging ever and it can only get better,” Barnaby-Cuff enthused.
Sharing her ideas for a venue change, Barnaby-Cuff, who has been been involved in the gospel music industry more than 14 years, said, “Definitely this year we were pleasantly surprised to see much more people in atendance, especially in terms of our patrons. Persons showed up and showed out. We had a packed house, it was much more than last year’s. And for the years to come, for year eight we have to get a much bigger venue and we are looking forward to that.”
Among the evening’s performers were Chantal Smalling, Gospel Star entrant, whose big voice did justice to the traditional favourite, Lord You’re Holy; six-man a cappella group, HUMBLE, whose repertoire paid tribute to some of the foundation Jamaican gospel singers, Prince Saj and John Mark Wiggan.
The Sterling Gospel Music Awards, which is officially endorsed by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, has a mandate to “give industry players, fans and sponsors an opportunity to celebrate the work done over the past musical year”. The mission is to shine a light on the contribution of persons “who have helped in cementing Jamaica internationally, as one of the hubs for authentic, passionate and skilfully written, inspiration-filled gospel songs, which is more often than not, fused with our rich culture of Reggae music”.
Sterling Gospel Music Awards Winners 2023
1. Album of the Year
Sing Praises Live - Petra Kaye
2. EP of the Year
My King Project - Ryan Mark
3.Male Artiste of the Year
Johnmark Wiggan
4. Female Artiste of the Year
Petra Kaye
5. Group of the Year
Levy’s Heritage
6.Breakout Sensation of the Year
Johnmark Wiggan
7.Collab of the Year
Sweet ehh - DaJourney ft Sone G
8. Local Hit of the Year
Grace - Kevin Downswell
9.Local Hit Producer of the Year
Downswell Records & Nebulous Productions
10.Caribbean Artiste of the Year
Positive
11. International Artiste of the Year
Cece Winans
12.Video of the Year
God is in Control - LeoNell Teape ft DJ Nicholas
13.Most Rated Radio Programme of the Year
The Gospel Light - Ava-Gay Blair-Black
Gospel JA
14. Online Radio Programme of the Year
The Praise Ministry - DC Praise
15.Gospel Personality of the Year
Ava-Gay Blair-Black
16. DJ of the Year
DJ Rebirth
17. Virtual Gospel Series of the Year
Daily Sustaining Word - Oneil Pusey
18. Most Rated Event of the Year
Genesis - Jamaica Youth for Christ