Lois Grant and the IRAWA Award

Lois Grant

Innercity Promotions ... for those old enough to remember...( led by Michael Tomlinson and Lois Grant) has been recognized for the role played in the development of Jamaica's popular "DANCE HALL" music in the 1980s and early 1990s. The award was announced at the 38th annual International Reggae Music and World Music Awards in March 2020. The red carpet affair had to be cancelled because of the Coronavirus but was aired on national television (CVM On stage and on the internet) 

Yes people, believe it or not. We were the pacesetters and the innovators of the "dance Hall" concept/ series of live concerts at the Habour View Drive-in theatre in Kingston, Jamaica during that era.

The concept of a "dance hall" nite became the biggest drawing card for other promoters of the decade and onwards. The "Dance Hall series" was the springboard for the development of the early stars of the dance hall. including  Sugar Minott, Admiral Bailey, Papa San, Super Cat, General Trees, Early B, Ninja Man,  Pinchers, Josie Wales, Michigan, and Smiley, Yellowman, Half Pint, to name a few.

More on this can be seen on the IRAWMA website or the magazine online at  https://irawma.com/magazine/

We are grateful to music historians Dr. Dennis Howard and John Swaby..Jamaica's  Stage, lighting, and technical expert, both of whom no doubt played an active role in having this piece of our music history recorded. Dr Howard thru his writings and research and John Swaby who has worked on almost every production staged in this country for all those years.. We are particularly grateful to them for doing this while both Michael Tomlinson and myself are still standing and we don't have Alzheimer's.🙂

 For those still young in the business.. it's important to know that it is on our shoulders that your generation is all standing, tho you have taken the genre in a direction that we did not create or intended.

Thanks to IRAWMA.. for the recognition..it's never too late and it's appreciated.

Editor's Note

I have worked with Lois Grant over the years and this includes working with her on the Tastee Talent Concert series. That experience was used in those years that I chaired the Festival Song Committee.