Award-winning Afro-dancehall artiste, Stonebwoy, has opened up about the award that holds the greatest significance in his career, despite winning several local and international accolades over the years.
According to the musician, his Best International Act victory at the 2015 BET Awards remains the most memorable achievement of his journey in music.
Speaking in an interview, Stonebwoy explained that winning the prestigious award marked a major turning point in his career and gave Afro-dancehall the global recognition he had always envisioned for the genre.
He noted that the achievement came shortly after he was crowned Artiste of the Year at the Ghana Music Awards, making 2015 one of the most defining years of his career.
“Absolutely. When I won the BET Awards in 2015, that actually broke the door open. Immediately after that, I released Go Higher. I had won Artiste of the Year at the Ghana Music Awards, which is like our Grammys, in May, and then in June I was winning the BET Award.
“That was a significant moment in my life that can never change. There are highlights of everybody’s career and I think that was when Afro-dancehall really got its opening to the globe,” Stonebwoy said.
Touching on the growing recognition of Afro-dancehall in Jamaica, the birthplace of dancehall music, Stonebwoy said Jamaican artistes appreciate the fact that their sound has inspired African musicians to promote the genre to a wider audience.
He further called for stronger collaboration between African and Jamaican artistes, saying such partnerships would help elevate dancehall and Afro-dancehall on the international stage.
“It’s beautiful. I think the Jamaicans even love it. They love the fact that their sound has become an inspiration. It’s beautiful to realise that it is the African brothers and sisters who are promoting and propagating the measure.
“One thing I always say is that they should continue to open up their wings so that we can crisscross, making it bigger, better, and finer.
“That’s why BHIMFest has, for the past 10 to 11 years, given the platform and spent resources to open up that mentality by bringing them home, creating cross-connections, fostering collaborations, and exposing audiences here, and vice versa. I believe they should open up even more,” he noted.
