Winky D bags international dancehall gong for seco...

Winky D bags international dancehall gong for second year running

Zim Now Writer

Winky D has, for the second year running, been bestowed with an award for Best African Dancehall Entertainer at the just ended 40th International Reggae and World Music Awards.

He was competing against Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy of Ghana and Nigerian singer Patoranking and Star Zee (Sierra Leonne).

Winky, affectionately known as Gaffa in the music circles, has been featured in the Southern African Music Awards and has more than six awards, two of which are NAMA and the honorary Dancehall award.

This year’s edition of IRAWMA was held on Sunday, May 7, at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica under the theme: “Reggae Rise.”

Over 150 of the reggae and world music industry’s best competed to receive the coveted IRAWMA honours.

Among some of the special honourees and nominees were: Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Koffee, Spice, Masicka, Popcaan, Sean Paul, Kabaka Pyramid, Alkaline, Skeng, Valiant, Sizzla, Skillibeng, Eddy Kenzo, Shatta Wale, Gramps Morgan, Romain Virgo, Etana, Christopher Martin, Queen Ifrica, Cherry Natural, Ding Dong, Toni Ann Singh, Capleton, Machel Montano, Patricia Roberts, Shenell Muir, Shaggy, Burna Boy, Bad Bunny, Stick Figure, Dexta Daps, Shenseea, Kevin Downswell, Carlene Davis and others.

According to Dr. Ephraim Martin, Founder and Producer of Martin’s International - IRAWMA, “We have made great efforts to give deserving respect to those who have laboured and contributed greatly to the music and culture of Jamaica and those who have contributed to social change in society, not just in Jamaica, but the world.

“We gave a special honour posthumously, to the late Peter Tosh for his early campaign to legalize marijuana for medical use, and his encouragement for us to start the annual IRAWMA.

“We also saluted fifty years of Jamaican Dancehall and its evolution through those years. Winston Powell, whose Stone Love Sound System has been the most consistent dancehall system and has been the ruler for the genre for more than 30 of those years, and was among the honourees.”