Iyanola Online Awards spotlight creatives shaping popular culture

January 23, 2026

Creatives and organisers of the inaugural Iyanola Online Music and Entertainment Awards have described the hosting and execution of the event as a success. The awards, which were held exclusively online, focused on creatives who made a significant impact on Saint Lucia’s popular culture, with members of the public invited to choose the winners. The results were announced through a series of video releases on social media on Wednesday, January 21.

In an interview with St. Lucia Times, key contributor to the award show, Sedale Simei, said the response from both the public and the artists themselves has been tremendous.

“I’m happy to say that the creators and the people who occupy the entertainment space have been very happy about us highlighting their contributions to Saint Lucia and the entertainment scene,” he said. “It’s only up from here. We’re already looking ahead to this year to see how we can improve in every aspect.”

Simei also revealed that the nomination process proved challenging for the nominating committee, given the wealth of creative talent on the island.

“This is not an award show where a committee sits around and decides that one person’s art is better than another’s,” he explained. “It’s not rationalised that way. It’s really about who has the most impact on Saint Lucia’s popular culture. What’s unique about this award show is that the people decide who the winners are. We don’t decide — we only select the nominees. That was one of the biggest challenges: determining who had that impact and then putting together a shortlist for each category.”

Despite the success of the inaugural event, Simei noted that the organising team is not resting on its achievements. He believes there is room for improvement, particularly in the areas of category development and nominee selection.

“I think going forward, one of the things we can improve on is the nominee selection,” he admitted. “We’re already reviewing how we can refine the process to make it even better. Even the method by which we select nominees is something we’re looking at, to ensure everyone gets a fair chance and that the nominees are strong contenders within their respective categories.”

Simei also shared plans to expand the awards in future editions.

“Moving forward, we want to increase the number of categories, because there were some we had to leave out simply because we didn’t want to overwhelm people,” he said. “For instance, makeup artists are part of the entertainment space, as well as boutique owners. Categories such as Best Female Artist of the Year or Best New Female Artist of the Year could also be introduced. These could have been broken down further, but for the first year, we didn’t want to include too many categories. However, it’s definitely something we’re looking to expand on.”

The full list of winners are as follows:

Dennery Segment Artist Of The Year: Umpa

Photo credit: Iyanola Music and Entertainment Awards

Best New Artist Of The Year: MC Dalo

Best DJ Of The Year: JH & MC Dalo

Best Song Of The Year: Natoxie ft. DJ ASAP – Toko Doak

Best Music Producer Of The Year: G6 Productions

Best Collab Song Of The Year: Dezral ft. Jardel – The Car

Best Live Band Of The Year: DYP

Music Video Of The Year: Shemmy J x Umpa x Ezra D’FunMachine x Arthur Allain x Sedale x Imran Nerdy – Lucian Carnival (Nothing Sweeter Than That)