For the people, by the people

Gine On Magazine is having its second People’s Choice Awards this year, but with a difference. They’ve added new categories and there’s an official awards ceremony scheduled for February 2020.

The multi-media platform which is run by DJ Simmons and Empress Zingha spoke to Bajan Vibes about the idea to develop the People’s Choice Awards to help advance Barbadian culture.

“It is called the Gine On People’s Choice Awards and it was started because we knew we wanted to find a way through our platform to help celebrate Barbadian talent and culture and to respect and show reverence to those persons and pieces that are impacting our local lifestyle and culture. It [began as a celebration] but then we saw it as a platform where people could not just see people and say they know them but learn more about the specific artistes themselves,” Simmons said.

Simmons added that in the nomination and voting period last year, 11,000 people came onto their platform Gine On and were eager to see more of what Barbados had to offer.

“Only 65 per cent of those persons were from Barbados. Thirty-five per cent were from Germany, the United Kingdom, New York, Africa… a lot of people in the Barbadian diaspora were looking and voting because they wanted to see more of themselves,” he said.

Zingha added that people chose to vote for a quality product instead of their friends. “There were videos that were nominated and [there would be] a YouTube video and persons would have clicked on another video and then they would say, ‘Wait I think I like this song better…’ because maybe it was produced better, maybe it was written differently, maybe it was well done. I think I am going to vote for this. Persons were really torn – should I vote for my friend or should I vote for this person’s work? There were also instances when they never heard of an artiste and they were exposed [to them]. It encouraged people to go to [the artiste’s] Instagram and Facebook pages and websites and see the amount of work they are putting into the creative arts,” she said.

Simmons explained that the husband and wife duo who run Gine On are not in charge of who wins after the nominations and votes are tallied; the person with the largest number of votes wins the competition.

This year there are some new categories including Party of the Year, Best Motivational Speaker, Model of the Year, Writer of the Year and Poet of the Year.

Simmons explained that the Awards ceremony will be intimate and will allow nominees to receive tangible as well as digital awards for their contribution to the creative sector.

“Last year, there was a digital show where we did a live stream and revealed the winners and certain cultural practitioners came in. This year, we are looking to have an intimate awards ceremony produced the Gine On way. So, it is going to be engaging and exciting. We are going to do the most with the resources that we have. Obviously, we are looking for backing to help us out. We know exactly what we need and what we want. One of the main things is that we are getting actual awards created that they can put on their mantle as well as other digital things [like wallpaper] for phones. We want to keep it different so people can feel appreciated,” he said.

Simmons and Zingha revealed that last year there were 30,000 hits on their social media platform and they’re looking to surpass that this year. So much so that they read each recommendation sent by their viewers and received assistance from cultural practitioners such as Mahalia from 2MileHill, Teff Hinkson and Corrie Scott, just to name a few.

The nomination period started in September and will officially close December 31 with the nominees being revealed January 2, 2020. To find out more, persons can go on their website at gineon.com/awards  or email wuh@gineon.com. (LG)