Cuba Wins Caribbean Song Contest Amid Calls For Greater Cooperation

Cuba's Ademilis Hernandez emerged victorious with the storming, uptempo salsa number "Ale Ale Arriba Arriba" at the 17th Caribbean Song Contest held April 28 here.

The contest, part of the four-day Caribbean Congaline Music Festival and Symposium, attracted entrants from seven countries and was broadcast live across the region.

Cuba also won two years ago. The contest was not held last year, but Barbados has now secured an agreement to act as the host for the next two years.

Hernandez, the 26-year-old former member of Cuban salsa group Canela, was presented with the prize by Stewart Krohn, president of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union.

Barbadian entrant Carolyn "Tassa" Forde came in second, with "Let Us Be Friends Again." Third place went to Trinidad's Chantal Small, with "Tears."

The need for unity and cooperation among the different Caribbean territories was a theme that dominated not only the song contest but many of the workshops and panel discussions at the accompanying symposium. A strategic nine-point plan to help the regional music industry was put forward by Dr. Keith Nurse of the Caribbean Export Development Agency.

He said the region faced the typical problems of "small domestic markets dominated by foreign imports and airplay." His plan called for greater investment in local initiatives, better copyright protection and administration, an anti-piracy campaign, greater development of the Internet and E-commerce, government initiatives on intellectual property and trading policy, the establishing of more regionwide industry bodies, and updated production facilities.

Allison Demas, a music industry attorney from Trinidad, also singled out foreign airplay and piracy as being responsible for the erosion of Caribbean artists' earnings. She praised the legislation enacted by the Barbados government, which requires radio stations to play 60% Caribbean music. She called on other island governments in the region to follow suit "if we want to end this constant seepage of our foreign earnings." The Caribbean music industry was estimated to be worth more than $1.3 billion in 1999.

Delegates from across the Caribbean, the U.S., and the U.K. also heard Mia Mottley, the Barbadian minister of education and culture, urge Caribbean acts and labels to adopt a more aggressive attitude in promoting the region's talent to the rest of the world.

In a hard-hitting keynote address, Mottley said that those working in the Caribbean music industry should become "soldiers not dressed in green" and fight for the propagation of a specifically Caribbean musical perspective.

She called on these acts to help emancipate the region from "mental slavery" and said the Caribbean had suffered and been exploited under colonialism, imperialism, and now globalization. She said the region's musicians had a duty to promote the Caribbean's rich cultural heritage because they have "a greater power and reach than that of the politicians, preachers, and leaders since they influence the minds, souls, and bodies."