The day had finally arrived. Sunday, April 12, 2009, the scene for the inaugural Compas on Broadway Haitian music awards ceremony was set and ready to honor those whose contribution has greatly impacted the industry in the past couple of years. The event was held at the Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center located in the heart of Manhattan. Opa was there on the red carpet to cover the long-anticipated event. Months ago, the Haitian Academy for the Performing Arts presented to us a challenge they’ve embarked on; the challenge to put Compas on Broadway. It seemed almost impossible that this was going to take place as many industry insiders expressed either concerns or disbelief that this event would ever be brought to realization. Even in the aftermath of the vis-à-vis with some of the industry’s most prominent members that were invited to cast their votes in an effort to legitimize the event; one couldn’t be sure. Well time has proven to be the only teller of the ending of this story.

One of the highlights of the event was when the family of Nemours Jean-Baptiste came on stage to accept the “Lifetime Achievement Award” on behalf of the late legend for creating the Compas Direct genre. The gesture was very noble of the academy and they didn’t stop there. They also honored Maestro Ulrick Pierre-Louis, of the legendary Orchestre Septentrional d’Haiti, with the “Living Legend’s award”.

The sound system was great but there was no curtain on the stage, and the floor lighting was nonexistent. During their performances, a few of the bands complained about not being able to see the audience which is somewhat the responsibility of the production team which this show didn’t have. When Opa inquired about the lighting situation we were offered no explanation. The number of media outlets that were allowed full access to film and photograph the event was very limited, leaving most of us scrambling to obtain any type of footage. Opa had good seats but we chose to focus on reporting to our members, therefore, we ended up trading our good seats for nosebleeds with a good camera angle.

Though the organizers tried to bring musical diversity to the event, they fell short. There were no gospel or Rap Kreyòl artists in attendance even though both genres had their own category and nominees. It would have been wise to have performances representing each kind of Haitian music nominated for the event.

Digressing from the negative aspect of the event, I must congratulate the organizers on a great vision. There’s definitely room for improvement like the cliché goes: Rome wasn’t built in one day. If I had to give an overall assessment of what I thought of the show, I could honestly say it was good. Not great but good. The musicians might want to help also because there’s a lot of money invested in this and they are doing it to advance our music and culture as a whole. The “same ole same ole” performances don’t belong in an event of this caliber. A lot of no-no’s transpired during the show. Musicians being late for the red carpet, not really putting on a show, or just not supporting the event at all providing they were invited. I’m looking forward to the second edition of this ceremony God willing.

Below are the winners from each category.