Caymanian singer, songwriter and musician Stuart Wilson will perform at the Songwriters of North America Warrior Awards being held in Los Angeles on Sunday, 29 Oct.
“It is a great honour to be performing at the SONA awards ceremony,” Wilson told the Compass. “I have always been an advocate for the rights of songwriters and being associated with other advocates in that regard is something I am profoundly proud of. SONA has been behind a great deal of modernisation in the realm of songwriters’ rights, which is something that we as creators all benefit from.”
The SONA Warrior Awards “celebrate the immense talent and hard work of individuals known for their high-profile accomplishments within the music industry while honoring their tireless efforts advocating for songwriters’ rights”, according to the SONA website.
This year’s honourees, at the event at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood, are country singer Rissi Palmer, the late songwriter Allee Willis, CEO of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Elizabeth Matthews, and songwriter-singer Justin Tranter.
Wilson said the invitation to the awards ceremony came about because of his work as vice-chair of the Cayman Copyright Committee, “the Caribbean chapter of SONA, referred to as SONA+C is a partner and so the invitation was extended to me through the connection/association.”
He said SONA committee heads saw his performance at the organisation’s launch in Grand Cayman in August, and “decided to invite me to perform for the awards ceremony”.
Wilson will be performing original songs, including ‘Rule the World’, ‘Feel for You’, and ‘Head Up in the Clouds’, based on his unique fusion of reggae, blues and jazz. “Some of the songs I plan on performing have not been recorded or published yet, as well,” he said.
His career highlights included the 2013 collaboration with legendary reggae producer Clive Hunt, Jamaican musicians such as Dean Fraser and Sly Dunbar, and Cayman’s own Jason Gilbert, who won a Grammy award for his work on Eminem’s album ‘Recovery’.
He made his international performance debut in 2014 at Jamaica’s Reggae Sumfest music festival, and later a tour of Southeast Asia with his band, completing a whopping 72 shows over three months. Wilson released his first number one single in Jamaica in 2016, entitled “Feel For You”.
Wilson has performed at numerous music festivals, opening for international artists John Legend, Air Supply, Damian Marley, Beres Hammond, Michael Bolton, Roberta Flack, Sean Paul, Morgan Heritage and Third World. Over the last three months, he has performed 34 times in Cayman.
He said the opportunity to perform at SONA is important for the music community in Cayman because “it exposes us to a global audience and exhibits our creativity on the world’s stage.”
“Our music here in Cayman is like our accent – unique and distinct. It is a derivative of the many influences we experience as a first-world, cosmopolitan society that happens to also be an island paradise,” he said.
Wilson added “our people are eager to contribute to the stream of human consciousness that is captured in the arts and the time has come for that to happen. I’d encourage songwriters in the Cayman Islands to join SONA and avail themselves of the education and advocacy being provided.”
Upon his return from Los Angeles, Wilson is set to perform several times during the 2023 Cool Out Festival taking place next month in Grand Cayman.
Related Videos
