OSWALD BROWN WRITES
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 11, 2018 — The recent deaths of two legendary Bahamian icons of the entertainment industry once again have focused attention on the lack of appreciation by Bahamians generally for the many outstanding entertainers that The Bahamas has produced over the years, several of whom would have been international superstars had they not settled throughout their careers on making a “relatively good salary” performing in The Bahamas.
When Ronnie Butler died on November 19, 2017, at the age of 80, bringing to an end more than five decades as one of The Bahamas’ top entertainers, interred with his human remains were a warehouse of missed opportunities to be one of the giants of the entertainment industry internationally if, in his prime, he had made the decision to venture beyond boundaries of The Bahamas and expose his immense talent to a wider audience.
The same is true of Ezra Hepburn, the multi-talented Bahamian superstar, who died earlier this year on June 18. During his early years as an entertainer, Ezra was primarily known a wonderful guitarist, but after establishing his own group, “Ezra and the Polka Dots,” as the lead singer and guitarist, his raspy voice over the years catapulted him to stardom among the galaxy of local entertainers. His “Stop the World and Let Me Off”, which he recorded late in his career, is still one of my all-time favourite Bahamian songs.
I have always found it difficult to understand why there have been so many exceptionally talented Bahamian entertainers over the years – some who are no longer with us, like Ronnie and Ezra, and others who are still performing — who were and are so content to confine their talent to The Bahamas.
I previously lived in Freeport for 12 years before moving back to Washington, D.C., in May of 2013 as the Press Cultural Affairs and Information Manager at The Bahamas Embassy, and on my visits to Nassau back then, I always stayed at SuperClubs Breezes. It is still where I choose to stay when I visit Nassau, and the main reason is not the all-inclusive amenities of an open bar and the all-you-can-eat food concept, but rather because it features nightly one of the best entertainers in The Bahamas as the star of a magnificent show.
David “Funky D” Ferguson was a banker before the lure of a better income encouraged him to become a full-time entertainer, and for more than 20 years he has been the star of the show at SuperClubs Breezes. He is a versatile, multi-talented singer who has a number of recordings of original Bahamian songs, but during his show his talent really explodes when he performs popular ballads by internationally known stars better than they do – although my personal opinion in this regard may be influenced by a tinge of bias fostered by my Bahamian pride.
One unfortunate aspect of his long-term contract with SuperClubs Breezes is that Bahamians generally no longer get to see Funky D perform unless at a special event away from SuperClubs Breezes, whose entertainment packages are provided primarily for their all-inclusive guests. His contract with SuperClubs Breezes no doubt has also prevented him from “testing the waters” of the entertainment industry internationally.
Among other outstanding Bahamian performers that I am convinced would have become international stars had they had more exposure abroad are Mavin Henfield and Jay Mitchell, both of whom have fantastic voices as well as spectacular stage presence. There, of course, are a number of others whose talent has never been fully exposed to the world.
Of course, several Bahamian groups did indeed expose their talent to the world-at-large, most notably “The Beginning of the End,” which made a big splash on the international scene in the early 1970s with their monstrous hit, “Funky Nassau”; Johnny Kemp, whose “Just Got Paid” was a big hit internationally in the 1980s; and more recently, Baha Men, with their big hit, “Who Let The Dogs Out.”
But for the most part, Bahamian entertainers have not been as successful internationally as entertainers from our sister islands like Jamaica and Trinidad. Again, a major reason for this is that entertainers from these islands tend to invest more time and effort into obtaining international exposure.
When I previously lived in Washington, D.C., for 21 years before returning to The Bahamas initially in 1993, every year Byron Lee and the Dragonaires out of Jamaica and The Mighty Sparrow out of Trinidad performed in D.C. during their annual North America tour. They generally attracted sold-out crowds because of the large number of Caribbean natives, Bahamians included, in the diaspora.
I don’t recall a Bahamian group ever touring North America, or for that matter performing in Washington, D.C., except for an occasional visit by an individual entertainer or a group with a tourism promotion team, which raises a question as to why there is so little interest these days in including Bahamian entertainers in our current tourism promotion forays. This surely is a oversight that current Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar should make an effort to address post haste.
The government of Jamaica, for example, long ago proved that it considers its entertainers to be valuable assets not only to the promotion of tourism, but the nation generally. This was personally demonstrated by former Prime Minister Edward Seaga as far back as 1964 when he was Minister of Social Welfare and Economic Development and sent Byron Lee and the Dragonaires to perform at the New York World’s Fair as a back-up group for “a showcase of Jamaican talent, including Jimmy Cliff, Prince Buster, and Millie Small,” according to information gleaned from the Internet.
The point that I am attempting to make is that the Ministry of Tourism should display more interest in promoting Bahamian entertainers and entertainment. An amount should be allotted annually in the Ministry’s budget for inclusion of a Bahamian entertainer or entertainers in tourism promotion campaigns around the world, which was a standard practice some years ago.
What’s more, Bahamians generally have got to demonstrate more support for our local entertainers, in the same manner that they do for foreign entertainers. Prior to Byron Lee’s death on November 4, 2008, every year he and his Dragonaires visited The Bahamas around Christmas time for concerts in both Freeport and Nassau and attracted standing-room-only audiences.
I often wondered back then why even an all-star show featuring Ronnie Butler and some of other top Bahamian performers had difficulty attracting a similar crowd. It’s long past time for Bahamians to stop believing that “foreign is better,” especially when the evidence is quite clear that this is far from being true as far as Bahamian entertainment is concerned.
