Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Junior Tucker preaching at the 'Fun In The Son' concert at Hope Gardens last Saturday. He was mentioned as one of the performers who will be 'brought home' for the Maja Awards in June. - ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
JUST OVER two decades after the first event was held at the University of Toronto in 1985, the Maja Awards (Canada's premier gospel awards) comes to Kingston, Jamaica, on June 10 and 11, in what Fitzroy Gordon described as "what I am contributing to my country as I prepare for my homeward journey."
Home was not on his mind, though, when the name came to the Maja International president, as Gordon told those gathered at the Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, offices of JAMPRO, on Tuesday morning.
Gordon said he was living in Canada and part of an a cappella gospel group. However, a lot of young people doing gospel were disillusioned, as "They were saying they were talented, but they had no opportunity." Gordon went walking by a lake, thinking that something special was needed, and when he sat in his car Mahalia Jackson's voice was on the radio singing The Upper Room. He wrote down 'Ma' for her first name and 'Ja' for the last. "Right away I said I wanted to make a gospel awards and call it the Maja Awards," he said.
RED CARPET TREATMENT
Twenty-one years, much growth and a bit of a hiatus later, the now red carpet affair makes its Jamaica debut just ahead of the second biannual Jamaica Diaspora Conference. The first night, Saturday, June 11, will be a 'People's Choice Nomination Concert', where international and Jamaican gospel artistes will perform and the audience will be asked to vote for the 'People's Choice Artiste of the Year'.
Among the performers mentioned to be 'brought home' for Maja were Papa San and Junior Tucker. The red carpet will be rolled out the following night and Gordon explained that there will be two segments, one for recording artistes both established and emerging, while "the second part is where we honour those who have served humanity well."
"It is the Christian community who will be awarding and rewarding and it does not matter that in some categories the persons may not be Christians," Gordon said of the service awards.
BRINGING IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE
It is not only a matter of awards, though, as Gordon said, "We would like Jamaica to be a place where faith-based tourism becomes very, very popular. They say that the gospel industry in the United States is a US$3.4 billion industry. A lot of that money should be spent here, in Jamaica."
Foreign exchange means foreign visitors, and Delano Franklyn, Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, after giving the history of the diaspora movement, said "It is not by chance it will be taking place the weekend before the week of the Diaspora Conference."
"The Maja Awards have all our support. It shows again that there are many Jamaicans living abroad doing a lot for Jamaica," Franklyn said. Representatives of some of the event's sponsors, Sandra Morgan of Victoria Mutual Building Society and Claudette Kenlock of the Hilton hotel, also gave their public endorsement of the awards.
The team organising the Jamaican leg of the Maja Awards was presented at JAMPRO on Tuesday, the audience applauding for Cheryl Crooks, Sam Cooper, Marjorie Scott-Anderson, Tommy Cowan and Bishop Peter Morgan. Talent coordinator Cowan was left to speak of the development of 'Fun In The Son', before Judith Gayle performed The Anchor Holds.
