Staff writer – Kerran Monroe
The 2013 staging of the Youth View Awards (YVAs), pulled off another successful event. The winners in the different categories however offered no surprises as most of the winners from last year, won again this year.
One repeat winner, however did raise some eyebrows, silenced some critics and doubters. This is the award for Male Artiste of the Year which went to the World Boss himself, Vybz Kartel.
The Girl Boss, Amelia Milk Sewell who collected the award on his behalf noted the relevance that Vybz Kartel still maintains among the youth and in dancehall as a whole, despite him being incarcerated.
Tifa and Konshens were the big winners of the night, with both winning the award for Favourite Local Artiste of the year; female and male, respectively. Konshens also won the award for Best Collaboration for his song Siddung, with Darrio. While Tifa won the award for Female Fashion Icon of the Year.
Vybz Kartel in the good old days. Photo courtesy alfingers.com
Other awardees included Popcaan, who won the award for Best Summer song and Warren Weir who won for Breakout Celebrity of the Year. (I cannot believe that is a category).
The sprinting king, Usain Bolt had to share the Celebrity Role Model of the year award with I Octane.
I love the YVAs and what it is doing in terms of giving recognition to those who contribute to Jamaican popular culture. However, I have some issues with some of the categories.
For example, why is there a Breakout Celebrity of the Year Category and not a Breakout Artiste of the Year Category; a category in which I would gladly nominate and select Chronixx as the winner.
Chronixx. Photo courtesy thewickedesttime.com
Also why are there two categories for Artiste of the Year? There is Local Female and Male Artiste of the Year and then there are Male and Female Artiste of the Year.
Since there is a category for International Artiste of the Year, why not just let the next category be Local Artiste of the Year (male and female) and call it a day? What criteria is used to decide who gets nominated for Local Artiste of the Year as opposed to Artiste of the Year?
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