Jamaican EME Peer Awards heads to New York
Four selectors to be honoured as event revived
Published:Sunday | September 11, 2022 | 12:08 AMAnthony Turner - Gleaner Writer
NEW YORK:
Four top-flight New York area selectors, the Original Richie Poo, DJ Roy, Glamour Wayne and Dub Master Chris, will be honoured with Excellence in Music and Entertainment (EME) Peer Awards at the upcoming birthday celebration for veteran broadcaster Richard ‘Richie B’ Burgess. The shindig takes place on Sunday, September 25, at Mingles Ultra Lounge, Bronx, New York.
The EME Awards, last staged a decade ago, was hailed for its glitz and glamour and for celebrating and honouring the top performers in Jamaica’s music and entertainment industry annually. Through the years, a powerful contingent of reggae and dancehall acts have graced the awards stage. Additionally, many international acts have either attended or have been honoured, including John Legend, India Arie, Akon, Eve and Trina.
“After staging the awards show in 2012, we took a hiatus to rethink how we wanted to proceed. Now that the entertainment sector has reopened and we are getting some reprieve from the pandemic, we decided to revive my birthday celebration and incorporate a long-thought-out EME Awards category – The Peer Awards. So far, the idea has been well received, which bodes well for a possible full-scale production in the USA sometime in the future,” Burgess told The Sunday Gleaner.
In speaking about the 2022 honourees, the top-flight morning broadcaster who was discovered by Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange said, ‘We handpicked these four gentlemen based on their professional approach to the sound system game, their consistent high standards of performance, not just in the USA and Jamaica but wherever they ply their trade and the mammoth contribution they’ve made to our music and entertainment industry.”
DJ Roy, co-founder of Road International, is an award-winning radio presenter who has been active in New York for more than two decades. On August 13 this year, he was honoured by the Jamaica Independence Foundation, Inc at their Jamaica 60 People’s Ball in Long Island, New York. The London-born Calabar alum lists broadcasters Barry G, Gil Bailey, Clinton Lindsay, Jeff Barnes and urban radio stalwart Frankie Cooker among his influences.
Sounding both upbeat and humbled, Burgess recounted how DJ Roy was “close to tears” when he told him that he was among this year’s honourees.
“It was totally unexpected, and the fact that he is being recognised by an award out of Jamaica has made it much more special,” the radio announcer with the unmistakable voice explained.
Award-winning Chris ‘Dub Master Chris’ McDonald has been a staple on the radio in New York for almost three decades. In the ‘90s, he did a stint on urban R&B/hip-hop station 98.7 Kiss FM, where he specialised in hip hop, house and reggae music.
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Richie Poo, who was one of the top performers at the recent Global Sound Clash at Reggae Sumfest in Montego Bay, is best known as a selector of the legendary Silver Hawk Sound System, which was founded by veteran production duo, the late Wycliffe ‘Steely’ Johnson and Cleveland ‘Clevie’ Browne. He has dabbled in production, his latest project being a riddim-driven album titled Sweet Summer Sweet, which features Busy Signal, Chris Martin, Kevyn Voicemail, George P and Kim Nain.
Veteran sound system selector, Glamour Wayne, is an accomplished selector who began his career in 1980 as a 15-year-old selector for Afro Tone Disco in Kingston. He garnered international fame touring with Gemini sound system during the mid-1980s. Since migrating to the USA at the beginning of the millennium, Wayne has carved out a niche as an independent selector in the USA, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.
The EME Awards had its genesis in 2005 as a small in-studio production and evolved into an internationally acclaimed event. In 2011, for example, the awards was given positive pre-coverage in USA Today, Fuse TV, NY Daily News, Live News India, On Wax Magazine, Ace Showbiz, MTV, Hip Hop Weekly, Hip Hop Wired and Star Magazine in England.
Burgess reminded that in 2011, “long before social media was so hugely popular,” the EME website registered hits from 176 countries around the world, including the USA, UK, Russian Federation, Belgium, Kenya, Poland, India and China.
The EME Awards was conceptualised to honour and recognise the accomplishments of reggae/dancehall stars in categories such as Deejay of the Year, Best New Artiste, Vocalist of the Year, Producer of the Year and, in 2010, Artiste of the Decade.
Patrons attending the EME Peer Awards and birthday celebration can expect Richie B’s celebrity friends to attend, along with talented female sensation Disney Amyka and dynamic New York City-based R&B/pop singer and songwriter Nyasia Chane’l.