One of R&B's biggest names is in town tonight. Omarion - who is known for hit songs such as Ice Box and Girlfriend, touched down this morning at the PGIA.
The singer is scheduled to perform in Belize for the first time on Saturday at the 2nd annual Belize Music Awards Show. The show will be taking place at the Bliss and according to the promoters; tickets are going fast:
Tiffarah Panton - PR. Flavaz Entertainment
"The awards show itself, we have the red carpet event, which starts at 6 p.m., and we'll have all the artists walking the red carpet in their best suits and everything. And at around 6:30 - 6:45 we're going to get the award show started. We want to start the show promptly. So it's not starting any later than 7 p.m. as the official time. So if you miss it, you were late; you missed an entire beginning. So, the red carpet is from 6 to 6:30, and we want to get everyone seated and started at 7 p.m. for the award show. What we're going to have is that we're going to have some of the nominees performing: TR and Blackberry. We're going to have Continental Cat, Taprick, Consego, Positive Vibes, Supa G - so much I can't remember all of them. One very important thing that I'd like to highlight is that we're doing the upcoming artist's category a little different this year. We have 5 nominees for the upcoming artist, and what's going to happen is that they're going to be performing throughout the show for the night, and they will be judged that night and awarded that. The reason that we're doing it that way is because we realize that of the artists that are upcoming, they might not have had a chance to record and release something in 2011, and the award show is about what you did in 2011. So we want to just give them a chance to just put themselves out there, and say, 'Hey, I'm an upcoming artist. Watch out for me in 2012.' And to just give them a chance to shine. Other than that, it will be the normal thing - presenting the awards. We have Omarion presenting the Artist of the Year award. We're giving a special award. Last year, I think, we had a number of honorary awards, but this year, we decided that we're going to have one. So there is going to be an honor award given to 1 of our artists. We have categories like best male vocalist, best female vocalist, number 1 break-out tune of the year, so it will be really exciting to see how all of this goes. And one other thing I want to highlight, because people have been voting online, and when you vote online, you can see the results, but I want people to know that this is not the end all, be all of who's winning the award show, because we do realize that people don't have access to vote online, so we are counting the ballots. And we have a professional auditing firm who will be weighing those thing equally and coming up with who is the official winner."
And while Omarion is hyped to be here - two prominent local artists feel they have been left unrepresented. Two of the biggest names in Belize's music industry shared with us how they really feel about the 2nd annual Belize Music Award Show. First, Ras Indio who posted his comments on YOUTUBE:
Ras Indio - Belizean Artist
"Bless Belize, Ras Indio reporting from Oakland California, I'm on tour right now. But they asked how we feel about the new music awards show that is now taking center-stage in Belize. We have to say, 'Big up' to any organization of people which makes an effort to award Belizean artist for their work and their talent, especially in these times, because we are out here working hard. At the same time, we must say that we feel a bit disrespected to see that they didn't put me in the reggae category. Well, everyone around the world, especially here in Oakland and nearing cities know Ras Indio to represent Belize for reggae music. So it's a kind of disrespect to not add me there. Yet, they have me in the male vocalist category, which we give thanks for, yet I share that category with other artists, who are in the reggae category as well. We all do the same thing. So it's kind of conflicting, and we can't understand it. So, they asked us to speak out on that besides the fact that certain people like Berne - 'big him up where ever he is' - probably in Cancun doing his thing. He's also nowhere on the award show, and everyone knows that Berne is a really highly respected Belizean artist, for what he does. Supa G, neither, which I feel that they believe Supa G is on a whole different level or something, for not even being in the award show. I could be even more specific about the Punta category, where the best song, songs like 'Tornado', which I don't really support because I don't want my daughter to do any tornado dance. At the same time, it was nowhere in the category as the best Punta song. So, these things have many people questioning this award show. We believe that there is already a set agenda. If you look at the ballot paper, you see that some names are in a hypnotic form. They keep showing up in the same block, and the people behind the scene know what they are doing. We don't really want to get much more in depth except to say that in the future, if you plan on having an award show, try to be more specific and be more honest with your actions. Don't try to manipulate the thing, and promote artists that you area also affiliated with."
Berne - Belizean Artist
"For all the artists who didn't get acknowledged by this group of promoters who are trying to make quick hustle, bringing Omarion, and bringing a couple of the other artists who are trying to do some good, and say, 'This is the Belize Music Awards.' It's not though. They should call it something else. They should be real with the people. They used to say that Belizean people are backward and kind of foolish, but I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true; I don't think that's going to last for too long because the people are not dumb. You can fool some of the people, but you can't fool all the people, because they are a lot smarter, and a lot of them think. A lot of them think that they could just bring Omarion, and people are going to flock to it. Come on, we aren't that backwards. How are you going to have a reggae category and don't mention Ras Indio. This brother is one of the hardest working artists out there. Hat's off to Ras Indo. This brother is everywhere on everything, pushing himself, promoting the music, trying to create ways for Belizean artists, pushing his music to a level that a lot of our artists have never been. They have never been on a lot of the shows that you are seeing Ras Indio on. How could you just spit in this man's face and not even put his name on something like that. Come on, make your hustle, do your business, or whatever you have to do, but at least include some of the artists who are really doing things, so that people can actually look at your award show like it's a real award ceremony."
Public Relations Officer for Flavaz Entertainment told 7news - there wasn't any harsh intentions when it came down to these artists - some of them were just a little stagnant with their music in the year 2011.
Monica Bodden
"Why was it that, for example, Berne Velasquez, one of Belize's biggest artist isn't a part of the award show."
Tiffarah Panton - PR. Flavaz Entertainment
"And of course, that came up as well, because in 2010, he was doing a lot more, and in 2011, maybe not as much, but we have to pick the top - and in some categories the top 5 because the artists were just so present with certain things in the year, we had to expand it to more than 5. So, he just never quite meet the criteria to end up in the top 5 more or less. And it's not that we never had him in mind, because everybody knows him, and everybody knows him as an artist, but he just never quite meet the criteria to be one of the top nominated people."
Monica Bodden
"Some of the artists do have issues with award show, for example Ras Indio, because he wasn't in the reggae section."
Tiffarah Panton
"I think that the fact of the matter is that one of the major criteria that he doesn't meet is that a lot of Belizean people don't know what he's been doing in 2011. I'm not saying that they don't know who Ras Indio is, but they don't necessarily know what he was doing in 2011, and even Ras Indio will tell you himself that he is travelling a lot. So, he might not have time to promote himself in Belize as much as he wants to. So, we could have put him on the list, but would the people vote for him? And we still have him as a male vocalist, because we do see him as one of our Belizean male vocalists, and we do know about some of the things he was doing for 2011, but again, he didn't quite fit the criteria, and even if you look at the dancehall/reggae category, it's kind of a dancehall category, and it doesn't quite fit the genre of music that he is doing either. That's not to say that we don't love the genre of music, and we hope that we had like 10 people to put him up against, but the fact of the matter is, you're forced to work with what we have. So if we said that we were going to do a reggae category, okay Ras Indio, and who else? Who else meets all of them. So it's really - you have to balance everything, and you just have to come out with the best of what you can come with, what is available to work with."
Controversy aside, the award show will be held on Saturday at the Bliss starting at 6:30.
Most Wanted Found In Belize
One of America's most wanted women has been captured in Belize - reportedly in Punta Gorda.
29 year old Larene Eleanor Austin, was arrested on Wednesday in Toledo for the 2010 killing of Lanell Barsock. Barsock's body was found in a garage by a friend in June 2010, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
She had a bag over her head and had been shot.
Austin allegedly tried to frame Barsock's boyfriend in the killing, but Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies determined that Austin was the main suspect.
Austin was found after authorities received a tip following an episode of "America's Most Wanted," which reported on the slaying in December. Police officers from Belize and FBI agents arrested Austin in Toledo and she was flown to Houston, where she was turned over to homicide investigators on Thursday.
