Late Barbadian entertainer Richard Stoute should be awarded the highest national honour – the Order of the Freedom of Barbados – and given an official funeral, fellow entertainer and president of the Barbados Association of Creatives and Artists (BACA) Colin Spencer said Monday.
Spencer told Barbados TODAY that the loss of the national cultural icon cannot be overstated, owing to his enormous legacy and influence in the island’s creative industry.
And he said bestowing the posthumous honour for Stoute’s efforts would be a significant and fitting act by the Barbadian government and people for a man who has done so much for the place he loved.
Stoute, 77, died on Saturday night.
“Richard’s passing leaves an enormous hole in the entertainment fraternity in general, but in music in particular. He was truly one of the icons, one of the builders, of local entertainment; if you had to pick 20 persons of any era that worked tirelessly to push music forward, Richard would be among those people regardless they [are]. Richard would have to be among those people.
“His legacy is assured in entertainment circles here in Barbados… [it] can not be questioned. As we speak, I am here in the process of drafting a letter to the Prime Minister of Barbados on behalf of BACA to ask that serious consideration be given to granting him an official funeral that is paid for by the government, and that whatever national honour has replaced the knighthood, that it be bestowed upon him posthumously, because it would send a positive message to the scores of young people now pursuing careers in entertainment.”
In 2019, the Order of the Freedom of Barbados was approved as an alternative to a knighthood as the highest national honour.
Meanwhile, Spencer also expressed the hope that the government would take over the Richard Stoute Teen Talent Contest, the nursery of several notable entertainers over the years, such as Edwin Yearwood, Alison Hinds, and TC.
He said: “We would . . . like to see the government assume responsibility, management really, for the Teen Talent competition; raise the standard [and] raise the level of production. It has the potential to become a regional type of competition once enough work and thought goes into it.”
The BACA president also emphasised that Stoute was well known not only for his mentorship of young performers but also for his willingness to lend a helping hand whenever an entertainer was in need.
“He did not only provide the platform on which they could perform, there was training that was involved. Holistic training in terms of mannerisms, behaviour on and off stage,” the veteran calypsonian said.
“He was the person who, in situations where persons were sick or lost their homes through fire or just down on their luck [and] not working . . . would arrange quickly, a fundraiser for the person. His main legacy would have to be in that role.”
Throughout his career, Stoute received several awards and honours including the Jackie Opel Award, Clement Payne Award, Barbados Silver Star and the Gold Crown of Merit.
On Saturday, hours before his death. Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that the Cabinet of Barbados had agreed to name the amphitheatre at the National Botanical Gardens at Waterford in his honour.
“If the debt owed to him by those who have followed him into the entertainment industry over the past half-century is anything to go by, then there is no other entertainer to whom the country owes more than Richard Dick Stoute.
“His unmatched contribution to the entertainment life of Barbados — particularly since Independence — requires that his name, his legacy, and his never-daunted approach, ought to be immortalised in a place where every Barbadian will forever see displayed the qualities inherent in the label ‘Bajan’,” she said.
