Industry players and mostly veteran entertainers turned out Saturday night at the 37th International Reggae and World Music Awards at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.
Rita Marley, Minister Olivia Grange, Freddie McGregor, The Heptones, Stone Love’s Fada Pow, Copeland Forbes, Clyde McKenzie, Capleton, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Queen Ifrica, Nadine Sutherland, former dancehall Queen Carlene, Jahvinci, and Downsound Records Josef Bogdanovih were some of the celebs in attendance.
Koffee who hosted the awards along with Tony Rebel, won three of the four categories she was nominated in. She walked away with trophies for Best Female Vocalist, Best New Entertainer, and Best Teen Entertainer.
Bounty Killer copped the Marcus Garvey Humanitarian Award for his work through his Bounty Foundation. During his acceptance speech, Bounty Killer urged his peers to support IRAWMA. While Beenie Man copped the Award for Best Caribbean Entertainer.
Reggae Sumfest was named concert of the year, Notnice scored Record Producer of the Year, and Stone Love took the title for Best Sound System or Deejay.
Spice walked away with female Deejay of the Year, and Wayne Marshall’s Glory To God was named Song of the Year.
Incarcerated by not silent, Vybz Kartel was named Best Male Dancehall Deejay of the Year. He also copped the title for Best Song for Underwater.
PopCaan nabbed the Bob Marley Award for Entertainer of the Year and his album Forever, was named Best Album.
Freddie McGregor took the award for Most Consistent Entertainer, Chronixx was named Most Cultural or Educational Entertainer and Cherry Natural copped the Mutabaruka award for Best Poet or Spoken Word Entertainer.
Tony Rebel, Mutabaruka and Boris Gardner were inducted in the IRAWMA Hall of Fame.
Live performances came from Capleton, Spice, D’Angel and others.
Under the theme “TheReggae50”, the International Reggae and World Music Awards closed at around minutes after 12.