Guyanese singer honoured in US

Jun 19, 2022 News

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – A Guyanese singer on Saturday, June 11, 2022, copped the United Bridge Builders Mission (UBBM’)s Entertainer of the Year Award after he was honoured by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) at his birthday celebration held in New York City, USA.

The award UBBM presented to Terry Watson

A portrait of Guyanese Singer, Terry Watson, popularly known as “Super Terry”

Terry Watson, who is popularly known by his stage name “Super Terry”, was honoured for his outstanding contribution to the Guyanese music industry for over three decades.
Watson has been involved with music since his childhood days but started his professional career as a young man, some 35 years ago.
At the beginning of his career, he began performing on stage with the Ninja Band and the Untouchables, two local Guyanese music bands that were very popular in the early 90s.

Terry Watson receiving his “Entertainer of the Year Award” in New York City, USA

Watson started off as a player of multiple musical instruments, including the guitar and keyboard, and then he started singing and recording his own music.
He recorded several albums promoting the Guyanese culture and positivity in his lyrics. One of his most recent hits is called Red, Black, Yellow, White and Green –a song that advocates for unity, especially among fellow Guyanese.
As Super Terry’s popularity grew, he began performing his music in the US and it was well received by the citizens of New
York City. Watson now lives there and for his birth night celebrations, the UBBM, which operates in the US and Guyana, selected him as their Entertainer of the Year.
The Guyanese singer also received two citations – one from the New York State senate and another from New York City. In the citations, he is recognised for his outstanding musical contribution to the State of New York and his American community.

The two New York City citations that Watson received along with his award

Presenting the citations and the award to him on his birth night was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UBBM, Bonita Montaque.
Watson via a Facebook post expressed how grateful he was to receive such an award on his special night.Speaking with The Waterfalls after the ceremony, Montaque said that her organisation selected Watson as their Entertainer of the Year because the messages in his songs are inspirational and positive.
“The call was made in light of the Skeng performance in Guyana that saw violence unleashed which obviously was influenced by his lyrics of shooting,” Montaque said.Skeng, whose real name is Kevaun Douglas, performed at a show called “Baderation”, held in May during Guyana’s Independence Week Carnival celebrations at the National Park. The concert ended abruptly, while he was performing one of his hit songs “Protocol”, after patrons began shooting in the air.
It also rained bottles from the skies and the following day, it was revealed that a robbery spree had marred the artiste’s performance as well.
Guyana’s Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn has since vocalized plans to ban all artistes “like Skeng” from performing publicly in Guyana, simply because their music promotes crime and violence.
Benn also said that he will move to remove from Guyana’s airwaves one of Skeng’s new hit songs, which reportedly labels Georgetown as a “gun town”.
Montaque related that she agrees that music promoting violence is not healthy for society and is encouraging all Guyanese artistes not go down this path.
She is calling on them to write positive lyrics that can uplift society in a good way.
UBBM has stated that its Entertainer of the Year Award will be an annual event and plans are being put in place to hand out “entertainer scholarships” to Guyanese recipients”.