NARIS­SA FRAS­ER

For an artiste who emerged from the streets of Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain, with an un­mis­tak­able sound and un­apolo­get­i­cal­ly Caribbean en­er­gy, Yung Bred­da con­tin­ues to make his mark on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.

The artiste has se­cured yet an­oth­er ma­jor achieve­ment, as he was crowned Best Ca­lyp­so/So­ca En­ter­tain­er at the 43rd an­nu­al In­ter­na­tion­al Reg­gae and World Mu­sic Awards (IRAW­MA)—and he’s ded­i­cat­ing it to all of T&T.

The ver­sa­tile singer says it was a sur­re­al and emo­tion­al mo­ment, and he hopes the achieve­ment in­spires oth­ers to be­lieve in them­selves—es­pe­cial­ly as T&T is cur­rent­ly plagued with “de­press­ing news.”

Known for dab­bling in mul­ti­ple gen­res, in­clud­ing steam, zess, dance­hall, so­ca and ca­lyp­so, he was nom­i­nat­ed along­side fel­low T&T acts Machel Mon­tano, Kes, Patrice Roberts and Trinidad Kil­la.

On its web­site, IRAW­MA out­lines that all nom­i­nees were cho­sen by reg­gae and world mu­sic in­dus­try ex­perts. The awards al­so al­lowed pub­lic/fan vot­ing.

Yung Bred­da was an­nounced as the win­ner at the of­fi­cial award cer­e­mo­ny on May 17 at the Lauder­hill Per­form­ing Arts Cen­tre, Flori­da. It is his first IRAW­MA award.

“To be recog­nised on an in­ter­na­tion­al plat­form like this is al­ways great and hum­bling,” he told Guardian Me­dia.

“Com­ing from Sea Lots, the pres­sure is al­ways in­tense as we are of­ten a shunned up­on com­mu­ni­ty, but lit­tle do peo­ple re­alise that this is where mu­sic and cul­ture has such a huge part of who we are. This award means more than words can ful­ly ex­press as I con­tin­ue to in­crease my ac­co­lades.”

He said the award is not just a per­son­al achieve­ment, but rep­re­sents years of hard work and sac­ri­fice.

“… Every late night in the stu­dio, every per­for­mance, every chal­lenge and every per­son who be­lieved in me along the way,” he added.

Ad­mit­ted­ly, there were times in his jour­ney when things got dif­fi­cult and “didn’t go as planned”, but he said he re­mained com­mit­ted to the mu­sic and cul­ture that raised him.

“As an artiste, my goal has al­ways been to cre­ate mu­sic that peo­ple can feel, mu­sic that brings joy, uni­ty, vibes and pride to Caribbean cul­ture. To con­tin­u­ous­ly have my work recog­nised at this lev­el mo­ti­vates me even more to keep push­ing bound­aries and rep­re­sent­ing so­ca and ca­lyp­so mu­sic on the world stage.”

He thanked his team, fans, fam­i­ly, friends and all mu­sic in­dus­try pro­fes­sion­als who sup­port­ed him over the years.

“Hats off to them! This award be­longs to all of us. The love and en­er­gy peo­ple con­tin­ue to show me both at home and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly is some­thing I nev­er take for grant­ed.”

He con­tin­ued, “Es­pe­cial­ly in a time when the coun­try is plagued with so much de­press­ing news, I hope this mo­ment in­spires young artistes to con­tin­ue be­liev­ing in them­selves. Our cul­ture is pow­er­ful, our mu­sic is glob­al and our sto­ries de­serve to be heard every­where. This award is proof that no mat­ter where you come from, your tal­ent and hard work can open in­ter­na­tion­al doors.”

Em­pha­sis­ing that he feels grate­ful, ho­n­oured and ex­cit­ed, he vowed to con­tin­ue “giv­ing his all” to the mu­sic, peo­ple “and the cul­ture that made me who I am to­day.”