It is exactly 8pm and the Accolade Awards Ceremony is supposed to have started at this minute. It is nowhere near starting as there are about 20 persons seated in the auditorium front of the National Cultural Center.
How late will they start? The place is virtually empty but there are a few persons mingling outside.
UPDATE 1: The organizers have invited the few patrons who were in the balcony to leave that sparsely populated area and join the few who are in the auditorium front. The show has started off as an immense flop and this is an admission of incompetence by the organizers as the masses have rejected the awards for their offensive and stupid pricing.
Balcony tickets were GY$6,000 each. Auditorium rear tickets were GY$8,000 while Auditorium front were GY$10,000.
Now those who paid GY$10,000 and those who paid GY$6,000 are seated in the same area.
This is an admission by the Accolade organizers of their ticket pricing having been immensely stupid. The whole thing is falling apart even before the show begins. It is now 8:10pm and the show does not look like it will start for another 20 minutes.
UPDATE 2: There is confusion with the ticketing system. Persons with the same seat numbers are clashing as several persons have the same seat numbers in the auditorium front section.
UPDATE 3: Lawyer Nigel Hughes and former Miss Guyana Universe and World Odessa Phillips are the emcees for the evening.
UPDATE 4: Songstress Timeka Marshall is sporting a simple purple gown. We’ve been told she looks stunning.
UPDATE 5: 8:20pm - no start in sight. They are possibly waiting for more persons to arrive. Not sure more people coming.
UPDATE 6: The audience remains extremely small and this must be a major disappointment for the organizers but they would have know it was going to be a flop as they tickets were not selling and even though they gave away hundreds of free tickets very few of the persons who received the free tickets turned up.
UPDATE 7: Apparently the organizers are awaiting the arrival of President Bharrat Jagdeo before they start. 8:32 and no sign of His Excellency as yet. Will he even turn up?
UPDATE 8: Persons in Auditorium Rear have been asked to move to the Auditorium Front to ‘fill up the front’. This is laughable. They organizers have been given a huge no confidence vote by the masses. They have been gloriously rejected with their offensive and ludicrous prices.
UPDATE 9: Michelle Cole and her baby daughter are in matching black and red outfits.
UPDATE 10: Minister Jennifer Westford who has been keeping a very low profile recently (she has fallen out with President Jagdeo and is in line to be fired) is in full evening gown. Red is her colour choice.
UPDATE 11: 8:38pm and there is a live performance of the National Anthem but President Jagdeo has not yet arrived. Has he snubbed the event? We are left to wonder. He was confirmed to make a feature appearance but it appears as though he has heard that there is an extremely small crowd and has decided to snub the event. If this is the case this would be a slap in the face of Kwame McKoy who is the president’s information liaison and the chief organizer behind Accolade.
UPDATE 12: National anthem sung by Magus Compton Leacock.
UPDATE 13: Red, green and gold themed stage.
UPDATE 14: Second item is a dance to ‘Walking on Sunshine’ by the National School of Dance. Nice choice of song for an award ceremony which is celebrating LOCAL TALENT. Why not choose a local song to dance to? This is a slap in the face of local artistes who are supposed to be celebrated this evening. The organizers have gotten this ALL WRONG.
UPDATE 15: Third item is a selection by Zareena Ali, Delma Lynch and Charmaine Blackman. Charmaine in typical ghetto fashion is in a terrible red hairstyle.
UPDATE 16: Now Celeste David sings. She’s in a see through black dress. All the bra and panty on display.
UPDATE 17: Brutal Jammers backing Celeste. Sounding good.
UPDATE 18: Odessa Phillips, flown in from New York for the event, in a lovely red number while her co-emcee Nigel Hughes in a bland grey suit.
UPDATE 19: Mike Fung asks audience to stand for one minutes silence for Byron Lee.
UPDATE 20: Best Soca Groovy Single (Male) winner is X2 (Adrian Dutchin and Jumo Primo). Mike Fung presents award.
UPDATE 21: Best Soca Groovy Single (Female) winner is Michelle ‘Big Red’ King. Cyd Hooper and Shelly G lose out.
UPDATE 22: Eddie Neblett wins Best Gospel Artiste (Male). Award presented by Pastor Kwame Gilbert, a known PPP apologist. Kester Deane, Sean Sobers, Solid Youth and Anil Azeez lost.
UPDATE 23: Best Gospel Artiste (Female) is taken by Cherilyn Maloney. Miriam Williams and Christine Canterbury were the other nominees.
UPDATE 24: Chutney Album of the Year is taken by El Sadiek for “Yuh Stupidy”. El Sadiek is a no show. Terry Gajraj who was expected to win this award and Anil Azeez lose.
UPDATE 25: Robert Persaud, Minister of Agriculture arrives over an hour late. That’s government officials for you.
UPDATE 26: Rajesh Dubraj performs.
UPDATE 27: Natural Black’s Far From Reality takes the Reggae Single of the Year award ahead of First Born’s Irits. How was Fojo, who is not a reggae artiste even nominated in this category?! Award presented by Don Trent and Celeste David. The presenters so far are really disappointing and low level. Some feel seriously aggrieved that Natural Black won this award ahead of First Born.
UPDATE 28: Timeka Marshall wins R&B Artiste of the Year ahead of Adrian Dutchin, Fojo and Charmaine Blackman. How was Adrian in this category? He has no R&B songs! Madness prevails.
UPDATE 29: Eddie Neblett wins Gospel Single of the Year.
UPDATE 30: There was supposed to have been a message from Minister Maniram Prashad but he too is a no show. Looks as though Kwame McKoy’s government/PPP colleagues are shunning him big time here. Kwame is being seriously bitch slapped here. Why? What has he done. It has always been rumoured that he is not liked within the PPP. He only hangs on because he is liked by Cabinet Secretary Roger Luncheon and to a lesser extent President Jagdeo. Nigel Hughes throws a low blow and says that Minister Prashad must be with President Jagdeo hence the reason for no message. That’s a real LOW BLOW.
UPDATE 31: Vivian ‘VJ’ Jordan (deceased) and Camille ‘Lady Tempest’ Goliath win Calypso Artiste of the Year male and female respectively.
UPDATE 32: Ruth Osman (flown in from Trinidad) and Trevor John perform a jazz number. They sound excellent.
UPDATE 33: For international television only Hype TV is recording. There were promises that many international television and scouts would be at the event. All fall down as only Hype TV shows up. Another slap in the face of the organizers. Kwame McKoy must be pulling his hair out.
UPDATE 34: Resounding applause for the little known Ruth Osman and Trevor John for their jazz number. Best thing of the evening thus far.
UPDATE 35: Another moment of silence for VJ. Bad planning. Why did they not do the moments of silence together?
UPDATE 36: Bunny Alves and Chairmane Blackman present the award for Best Collaboration to X2 (Adrian Dutchin and Jummo Primo). Fojo/Shelly G and First Born/Natural Black miss out.
UPDATE 37: Poor organization once again as Big Red and Vanilla present the Best Male Chutney Singer award to Terry Gajraj who is another no show. Organizers have been bitched slapped by many who have just refused to turn up.
UPDATE 38: Best Female Chutney Singer goes to Queen Yasmin.
UPDATE 39: With regard to UPDATE 36, how can X2 - a group - be given an award for Best Collaboration. That’s like giving the Black Eyed Peas an award for Best Collaboration. Sheer fuckery here with Accolade. They have no clue what they are doing.
UPDATE 40: Montage of winners from Friday night. No audio. Another screw up. That Friday night event at Pegasus was a disaster.
UPDATE 41: Best Soca Album Solo, Duet or Group is won by Slingshot who beats out Shelly G. Basil Bradshaw is presenter.
UPDATE 42: Timeka Marshall wins Best New Artiste. Simone Savoury from HJTV’s E092 is the presenter. Real D Class non-celebrities are presenters. Joke!
UPDATE 43: Major sound glitches. Embarrassing.
UPDATE 44: Eddy grant just got a mention but no Lifetime Achievement Award for him or anything. The legend is disrespected by Accolade.
UPDATE 45: Report just in that Minister Maniram opted to go to some Duck Curry Competition in Essequibo. Proves it - he totally bitch slaps Accolade.
UPDATE 46: The lady in seat D3 (methinks she is one who come down from Balcony) is wondering where Accolade got all the money from to fly in people and put on this show. They could have gotten a loan no?
UPDATE 47: Fojo and Alabama performs.
UPDATE 48: First Born performs. Clearly Digicel has relented and has won the battle.
UPDATE 49: Did we really hear Hughes just call parliament ‘Cricket in the Jungle’?
UPDATE 50: First Born beats out Natural Black for the Best Reggae Album of the Year. Nicolette Fernandes presents.
UPDATE 51: Soca Single of the Year - X2 wins for Tic Tac. DJ Prakz and Pamela Maynard present.
UPDATE 52: Album of the Year - First Born wins again over Natural Black. Rocky Carew presents.
UPDATE 53: Songwriter of the Year is won by Adrian Dutchin who takes the award from nominees Bunny Alves, Big Red, Fojo and First Born. First Born should have won here. Dutchin’s song writing is nowhere near First Born. Raw deal again. But with Digicel as sponsor I suppose you have to expect that all the Digicel artistes will win when they go head to head with the Blue Power artistes. Bragging rights is at stake for the two mobile companies here and as sponsor surely Digicel would be able to flex their muscle. Also the text voting was done through Digicel and there is no interconnectivity between networks so only Digicel customers could text in. The whole voting system for fans was unfair.
UPDATE 54: Burchmore Simon of Kross Kolors wins Producer of the Year for Crazy by X2. Michelle Cole and Trevor Rose present.
UPDATE 55: Reggae Artiste of the Year (Solo, Duo or Group) is taken by First Born. Ossie Nedd presents.
UPDATE 56: Natural Black has been clearly sidelined by the Accolade group. The man ain’t win nuttin yet. This is a total shut out for Guyana’s leading reggae artiste. More fuckery.
UPDATE 57: Artiste of the Year - Adrian Dutchin.
UPDATE 58: Even Mahendra Nagamootoo, the cricketer is a no show. EVERYONE is blanking Accolade. Why have they been so scorned by so many people?
UPDATE 59: Everything is winding down. Song of the Year - X2 (Crazy) wins over First Born (Irits). Once again this is unfair. The Digicel artiste wins over the GT&T artistes in the Digicel show. Award presented by Kerwin Bollers and Rawle Ferguson who look dapper in black suits.
UPDATE 60: X2 and First Born are the big winners of the night but every time they went head to head X2 won. Very suspicious.
UPDATE 61: X2 perform in black and red outfits (note the Digicel colour coordination?). This is a Digicel show, make no mistake about it. Everybody gots to know. X2 stole the show as usual. Note that they get to virtually close the show while First Born - the GT&T artistes) had to perform much higher up in the programme. See the war playing out between the two mobile service providers?
UPDATE 62: That’s it. 11:04pm and it’s all over. Done. Time for the after party but we not going. Overall the programme did not go badly, some very good performances. Rapid flowing programme. Major confusion with the nominees though. The Accolade folks have little clue what they are doing in selecting R&B artistes in the reggae category and soca artistes in the R&B category and other general madness. There was an ibvious bias for the Digicel endorsed artistes. The public voting system was flawed from the inception. Natural Black must feel aggreived. First Born should have won when X2 did in some categories. The nomination and awarding sections need major overhaul.