IN the music world, some of the most memorable songs are collaborations.
The 27th staging of Sting, the storied dancehall event has been entitled
The Collaboration, and that, according to the organisers, is no mere
accident.
Supreme Promotions, the force behind the annual Boxing Day event, has
been talking quite a lot about unity and togetherness and invoking the
power of the positive. With Sting's history of riding on and feeding
dancehall clashes, some are murmuring that Isaiah Laing and his execs
are simply paying lip-service to unity.
But a very calm, almost pastoral looking Laing says the time has come for
change and he, personally, is fed up with the war and 'bangarang' in the
dancehall.
"The time has definitely come for a change," Laing insists.
"You could put it down to maturity, or call it whatever you want to call
it. But the truth is that we are happy for the wind of change sweeping
through the dancehall right now. Some people feel that the friendship
among former dancehall rivals make the music boring, but we love it," he
declared.
So, in their quest to embrace and strengthen this change, the promoters
of Sting felt that there was no other theme for the 2010 staging of the
event than 'The Collaboration'. Interestingly, this is a far cry from
their warrior call of a few years ago, 'The Settlement'.
The show, which had its launch at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston last
week, consists of several dynamic segments including the 13 Warriors,
Spotlight, the 13 Bad Girls of Sting, Sting Disc Jocks, Sting Commentary
and Starlights. And in every segment, there is room for artistes to
join forces and entertain patrons in unity.
And Supreme Promotions head honcho is smiling at the thought of Kartel
and Mavado on the Sting stage in a show of unity. "I, personally would
be thrilled to see a real collaboration between the Gully and the Gaza
represented by Mavado and Vybz Kartel," Lains stated.
He added, "This year, that is what people want to see and hear ...unity
and good music. All the artistes in the Warrior section are hot. They
all have good songs that fans want to hear and the idea of seeing these
foes-turned-friends on stage together is a good feel."
Undoubtedly, the collaboration to end all collaborations would be a
Bounty Killer/Vybz Kartel stint on stage together. Can Sting 2010
achieve this?
Laing smiled and declined to comment. But he did say, "Remember that we
at Supreme Promotions and we like to give our patrons a special treat.
And we are working on it."
Of course, this is the Sting stage where a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g is possible. Read between the lines.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Look-for-collaboration...
