|
|
Shurwayne Winchester Wins Big
at COTT Awards
Shurwayne Winchester was the big winner at the 2006 COTT Awards
TriniSoca.com Reporters
November 04, 2006
The COTT (Copyright Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago) Awards which paid tribute to the songwriters, music composers and publishers for their creative works for a one-year period was held on Thursday 02nd November, 2006 at Queens Hall, Port of Spain.
The awards ceremony began with a rendition of Destra Garcia's "Colours Again" performed by Destra Garcia and the Lydian Singers and an opening welcome by Lutalo 'Brother Resistance' Masimba, president of the Copyright Organization of Trinidad and Tobago, to the 8th Annual COTT music awards.
Brother Resistance acknowledged all who made the event possible including everyone in the entertainment industry. He stated that COTT has been in existence for 21 years and have fought through many trials and tribulations to overcome the challenges that members of the music industry face. Despite the setbacks in the music industry such as pirated music and the state's failure to intervene in the protection of the intellectual property of the writers and artistes and composers, members in the entertainment industry have continued to put their music out on the global scene for the love of their fans. He also mentioned that some members have not registered their songs so they were not nominated and encouraged these artistes to ensure that they do so for the following year's awards.
In some categories such as the "Parang of the Year" and the "Jazz/World Music Composition" categories, they were dominated by one artiste. Thus, Francisca Allard, winner of the "Parang of the Year" title advised that other arrangers fill out the forms and register their songs to COTT. She expressed that Parang is the least rotated musical genre on the airways and hopes that the media, particularly the radio stations would do their part to promote this aspect of local culture. Apart from that, she was happy to be the recipient of this award and thanked all who helped her along the way including her group.
Also appreciative of their award was Jadee, winner of the 'Gospel Song of the Year' with "Baptize" who intimated that it is difficult to get gospel music played on non-gospel music stations. In this regard, he thanked these stations in helping gospel music become popular and accessible to all in the country.
Reigning International Soca and Groovy Soca Monarch, Shurwayne Winchester came out on top at the 2006 Awards winning in three out of the four categories in which he was nominated: Groovy Soca of the Year with "Don't Stop", Song of the Year with "Dead Or Alive" and Songwriter of the Year. According to Winchester during his acceptance speech for Songwriter of the year, songwriting can take as little time as a day or as much time as a month or longer. He was thus grateful that COTT recognized the effort of those nominated in his category for their hard work and dedication to the art form and for them making him victor in this category.
Entertainment for the night's proceedings was provided by Reverend Angela Williams and Christopher 'Tambu' Herbert with "I Sing You Praise" and "The Cry"; Chutney-Soca artiste, Rooplal G; Machel Montano with "Dance With You"; Isasha with "Don't You Know"; and Shurwayne Winchester with "Dead or Alive" and "Don't Stop". However, the highlight of the entertainment was Golden Achievement Award winner, Leroy 'Black Stalin' Calliste who sang, "Feeling to Party" and "Love Fire" which was a collaborative performance between himself and Machel Montano.
The COTT music award winners are as follows:
Parang song of the year: Francisca Allard
Soca Parang of the Year: Damian and Melina Joseph
Jingle of the year (Courts Trinidad): Machel Montano
Gospel Song of the year: Jadee
Jazz/World Music Composition of the year: Mungal Patasar
Rapso of the year: Karega Mandela
Ragga Soca of the year: Maximus Dan and Samuel Jack
Chutney Soca of the year: Veerendra Persad
Chutney Song of the year: Rikki Jai
Treasured License Award: Republic Bank
Golden Achievement Award: Leroy "Black Stalin" Calliste
Pan Song of the year: Destra Garcia and Zan
Classic song of the year: Colin Lucas
Groovy Soca of the year: Shurwayne Winchester and Shawn Noel
Calypso of the year: Morrel "Luta" Peters
Reggae/Dancehall of the year: Tony Matterhorn
New Male Songwriter of the year: Clyde Headley
New Female Songwriter of the year: Shakti Rampartap
Female Songwriter of the year: Destra Garcia
Publisher of the year: Jabberwocky Publishing
Song of the year: Shurwayne Winchester
Songwriter of the year: Shurwayne Winchester
Already artistes are preparing work for nomination in 2007. Hopefully, more artistes would register their work so that they too could have a chance of winning awards and gaining recognition among their peers.
COTT Music Awards 2006 in pictures:
www.trinisoca.com/gallery/COTT_Awards_021106
|
|
