Saint Lucian music and entertainment figures will be recognised at the inaugural Iyanola Awards, an online show created to highlight individuals who have made a significant impact on popular culture over the past year.
The original idea was born out of the vision of members of the music and entertainment industry, including singer-songwriter Orion who wanted to recognize their peers for their work within a given year. Over an extended period of time, after hosting an informal “awards” show on Facebook, this idea morphed into a full blown awards recognition, as highlighted by Sedale Simei, internationally recognized Saint Lucian artist and key contributor behind the Iyanola Awards. Other key contributors include Alana Roberts, Murissa Inglis, Naomi St. Remy, Jammerson Hunte and Virgil “Veaygel” Joseph.
“As the years went by, we started to increase the production value of it, and this year we went all out doing the video to announce the nominees and now we have people actually voting to determine who they think should win in the various categories,” Sedale told St. Lucia Times.
Sedale believes that this format truly represents the voice of the people, as opinions and judging are not merely limited to criteria set by industry heads but are completely based on the insight of the voting public.
“It’s important because it’s a way for us to celebrate people in music and entertainment. We don’t currently have an award show and we think it’s a good way for people to get recognized. Also, we realised that, with your conventional award shows, you have a select few people or a committee who picks the winners. The interesting thing about the Iyanola Awards is that the public decides who wins. So, the power essentially is in the public’s hand and they determine who the winners are.”
Simei notes that this is merely the start of a broader vision for the awards.
“The end goal for this entire process is again to highlight our creatives, people in the music and entertainment industry. This is a pilot project, so we understand that we won’t get everything right the first time around, but we wanted to put our best foot forward or try our best to recognise individuals in the music and entertainment industry,” he said.
“People like interior designers, nail techs, makeup artists, all of these people are part of the entertainment industry and while we do not have categories for them this time around, we do intend on expanding the categories to include more people in more areas of the entertainment industry because we believe it’s important for us to highlight these individuals as well because they do contribute to the overall entertainment industry.”
Voters will be able to cast their votes across 20 categories, including Best Artiste, Best Fete, Best Newcoming Artiste, and for content creators. Individuals can participate in the voting via this link: https://shorturl.at/zY4FL.
Voting ends on January 2, with official winners announced in a subsequent video to be posted online. For transparency, the actual voting tallies are expected to be revealed at that time as well.
