Naris­sa Fras­er

T&T con­tin­ues to dis­play its im­pact and ver­sa­til­i­ty in the mu­sic in­dus­try, se­cur­ing mul­ti­ple nom­i­na­tions across 23 cat­e­gories for the 2026 Caribbean Mu­sic Awards. Fans can now vote for their favourite singers, DJs, film-mak­ers, pro­duc­ers and events on­line un­til Au­gust 10.

More than 250 nom­i­nees in 40 cat­e­gories were an­nounced on Wednes­day, with T&T earn­ing nods for so­ca, zess, dance­hall, chut­ney so­ca and reg­gae.

Many pow­er­hous­es made the cut, in­clud­ing Machel Mon­tano, Bun­ji Gar­lin, Patrice Roberts, Fay-Ann Lyons, Na­dia Bat­son, Voice, Yung Bred­da, Prince Swan­ny, La­dy La­va, Full Blown, Travis World and Ravi B.

La­dy La­va led the charge with nine nom­i­na­tions, in­clud­ing Best Fe­male So­ca Artiste, Best Chut­ney So­ca Song, Best Zess Artiste and Peo­ple’s Choice.

She told Guardian Me­dia she feels blessed and grate­ful as she is mak­ing an im­pact that is “wor­thy of recog­ni­tion”. The Queen of Steam added, “I have to thank my sup­port­ers for the love they con­tin­ue to show me.” Last year, she was crowned the first-ever win­ner of Best Zess/Steam Artiste.

Many so­ca an­thems are up for Song of the Year, in­clud­ing Pardy by Machel Mon­tano, Car­ry It by Bun­ji Gar­lin, Co­coa Tea by Kes, Good Spir­its by Full Blown, Take Me Home by Free­town Col­lec­tive and The Great­est Bend Over by Yung Bred­da.

Lead singer of Free­town Col­lec­tive, Muham­mad Muwak­il, said he is very grate­ful and be­lieves cre­at­ing such “ecosys­tems” recog­nis­ing the re­gion’s great­ness is im­por­tant.

For Best New Artiste, T&T was rep­re­sent­ed by Chris­to, Coutain, Imani Ray, RAE and Aaron Dun­can. Chris­to said he was filled with pride, adding that his jour­ney has been marked by hard work and sac­ri­fice. As he thanked his team, fam­i­ly and fans, he added that be­ing nom­i­nat­ed along­side so many tal­ent­ed acts is a bless­ing and a mile­stone. “Thank you for every stream, every share, fete, sing-along and word of en­cour­age­ment. This nom­i­na­tion be­longs to all of us.”

Film-mak­ers are al­so get­ting recog­ni­tion in the Video of the Year cat­e­go­ry. Nom­i­na­tions in­clude Full Blown’s Good Spir­its, Machel’s Pardy, Last Train by Mi­cal Te­ja and Jam­town by Coutain, among oth­ers.

Kam­ron Wait­he, pro­duc­er of the Pardy and Jam­town mu­sic videos, said she is eter­nal­ly grate­ful to be able to cre­ate with peo­ple she loves and re­spects. “Blessed to do so and blessed that peo­ple res­onate with the art.”

Some cat­e­gories saw just one T&T nod, like Kman 6ixx for the Dance­hall Im­pact Award, Prince Swan­ny for Dance­hall Al­bum of the Year (Saint) and Queen Omega for Best Fe­male Reg­gae Artiste. 

And al­though lo­cal singers weren’t nom­i­nat­ed for Dance­hall Song of the Year and Dance­hall Col­lab­o­ra­tion of the year, T&T’s Akiel “Black­s­The­Man” Ri­ley pro­duced Ayet­ian and Go­v­ana’s Wah Yo Deh Pan—which made both cat­e­gories.

Jim­my Oc­to­ber and Free­town Col­lec­tive se­cured nom­i­na­tions for Caribbean Fu­sion Artiste of the Year. 

Jim­my said cul­ti­vat­ing a sound that blends gen­res has al­ways been im­por­tant to him. “Much love and thanks to the pro­duc­ers that take that chance with me to son­i­cal­ly bring dif­fer­ent worlds to­geth­er,” he added. “I’m a Caribbean boy who grew up lis­ten­ing to so much dif­fer­ent mu­sic, thanks to my mom. I’m in­spired by all of it.”

Zess was an­oth­er cat­e­go­ry that was, ex­pect­ed­ly, dom­i­nat­ed by T&T with the likes of Nel­ly Cot­toy, Sack­ie, Tem­pa, Trinidad Kil­la, Yung Bred­da and La­dy La­va.

Sack­ie, who is up for Zess Artiste of the Year and Zess Song of the Year, said it is a bless­ing to see his hard work recog­nised at this lev­el and that it keeps him hum­ble and mo­ti­vat­ed “to keep go­ing, know­ing one day I will reach my ul­ti­mate goal, which is to col­lab­o­rate with the best”.

He said he looks for­ward to cel­e­brat­ing Caribbean cul­ture at the cer­e­mo­ny. 

A to­tal of six T&T songs are among those vy­ing for Chut­ney So­ca Song of the Year, in­clud­ing Rasi­ka Din­di­al’s Pong D Damadol and Ravi B and La­dy La­va’s Cya Pick.

For Ravi B, even af­ter more than two decades in the mu­sic in­dus­try, recog­ni­tion like this “nev­er gets old”. “If any­thing, it means even more be­cause it re­minds me that peo­ple are still con­nect­ing with the mu­sic and em­brac­ing the cul­ture that I’ve ded­i­cat­ed my life to pro­mot­ing,” he said.

He said he, and oth­ers, con­tin­ue to push chut­ney so­ca on­to big­ger stages. 

He was al­so nom­i­nat­ed for Chut­ney So­ca Artiste of the year along­side Dru­patee, Ki and the Band, Rasi­ka Din­di­al and Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine. 

DJs al­so have their own cat­e­go­ry with male and fe­male In­ter­na­tion­al DJ of the Year. 

In the women’s cat­e­go­ry are DJs Ana, Char­lotte and Pri­madan­na.

“I feel hum­bled, thank­ful, ap­pre­cia­tive of my hard work over the years as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Caribbean mu­sic,” DJ Char­lotte told Guardian Me­dia. She al­so ap­pre­ci­ates that there’s a sep­a­rate cat­e­go­ry for fe­male DJs. 

In the male cat­e­go­ry, the nom­i­nees are DJ Pri­vate Ryan, DJ Punz and Travis World.

Punz said he nev­er imag­ined this mo­ment, call­ing it a bless­ing. “Over the past few years, we have been blessed to rep­re­sent T&T and the Caribbean. I just want all youths to know this nom­i­na­tion is a re­flec­tion of hard work, ded­i­ca­tion and sup­port.”

Pri­vate Ryan, who won last year, said that vic­to­ry in­spired him to work even hard­er this time around, and it is a plea­sure to be recog­nised once more. “It feels great to be recog­nised not on­ly for the work I have been putting in­to mu­sic, tour­ing and pro­duc­tion, but al­so in the cu­ra­tion of a world­wide Caribbean brand such as So­ca Brain­wash.”

That’s right — there’s al­so a cat­e­go­ry for events. His all-in­clu­sive event So­ca Brain­wash was nom­i­nat­ed for Mu­sic Event of the Year along­side Art­form (Na­dia Bat­son), I Am Woman (Patrice Roberts) and Stink and Dut­ty. 

That’s right — there is al­so a cat­e­go­ry for events. His all-in­clu­sive event, So­ca Brain­wash, was nom­i­nat­ed for Mu­sic Event of the Year along­side Art­form (Na­dia Bat­son), I Am Woman (Patrice Roberts) and Stink & Dut­ty.

Fi­nal­ly, for Mu­sic Cruise of the Year, T&T se­cured a nom­i­na­tion through Epic Car­ni­val Cruise.

The of­fi­cial date and venue of the awards cer­e­mo­ny have not yet been an­nounced.

ALL T&T NOM­I­NA­TIONS:

So­ca Song of the Year

Machel Mon­tano - Pardy
Bun­ji Gar­lin - Car­ry It

Kes - Co­coa Tea

Full Blown - Good Spir­its

Free­town Col­lec­tive - Take Me Home

Yung Bred­da - The Great­est Bend Over

So­ca Col­lab­o­ra­tion of the Year

Machel Mon­tano & Ayet­ian - Truth and Bal­ance

Machel Mon­tano & Davi­do - Fling It Up

Skin­ny Fab­u­lous, Travis World, Suhrawh - Can U Bend

Trinidad Kil­la & Nic­ki Mi­naj - Es­ki­mo

Voice & Bun­ji Gar­lin - Flat­ten

GBM & Nailah Black­man - Tay Lay Lay

So­ca Artiste of the Year (Male)

Bun­ji Gar­lin

Full Blown

Kes

Machel Mon­tano

Mi­cal Te­ja

Voice

Yung Bred­da

So­ca Artiste of the Year (Fe­male)

Ani­ka Berry

Fay-Ann Lyons

La­dy La­va

Na­dia Bat­son

Nailah Black­man

Patrice Roberts

So­ca Per­former of the Year

Kes

La­dy La­va

Machel Mon­tano

Na­dia Bat­son

Patrice Roberts

Voice

Best New So­ca Artiste

Coutain

Aaron Dun­can

RAE

Imani Ray

Chris­to

So­ca Video of the Year

Machel Mon­tano - Pardy

Full Blown - Good Spir­its

Coutain - Jam­town

Mi­cal Te­ja - Home

Mi­cal Te­ja - Last Train

Na­dia Bat­son - Pieces

Patrice Roberts - Rock So

Peo­ple’s Choice

Kes

La­dy La­va

Voice

Yung Bred­da

Caribbean Fu­sion Artiste of the Year

Free­town Col­lec­tive

Jim­my Oc­to­ber So­ca Im­pact Award Coutain Free­town Col­lec­tive Full Blown La­dy La­va Mi­cal Te­ja Trinidad Kil­la

Dance­hall Im­pact Award

Kman 6ixx

Dance­hall Al­bum of the Year

Prince Swan­ny - Saint

Dance­hall Song of the Year

Ayet­ian & Go­v­ana - Wah Yo Deh Pan (pro­duced by T&T’s Black­s­The­Man)

Dance­hall Col­lab­o­ra­tion of the Year

Ayet­ian & Go­v­ana - Wah Yo Deh Pan (pro­duced by T&T’s Black­s­The­Man)

In­ter­na­tion­al DJ of the Year (Fe­male)

DJ Ana

DJ Char­lotte

DJ Pri­madan­na

DJ One Gyal Army (US-based with T&T roots)

DJ La­dy Drea (US-based with T&T roots)

In­ter­na­tion­al DJ of the Year (Male)

DJ Punz & Se­lec­tah Ren­zo

DJ Pri­vate Ryan

Travis World

Reg­gae Artiste of the Year (Fe­male)

Queen Omega

Chut­ney So­ca Song of the Year

La­dy La­va & Ravi B - Cya Pick

Ravi B & Yung Bred­da - Hot Up

Ki and the Band - Loan

Ash­ni Matadin & Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine - More Gari (Remix)

Machel Mon­tano, La­dy La­va, Dru­patee, DJ Pri­vate Ryan, Jus Now - Pep­per Vine

Rasi­ka Din­di­al - Pong D Damadol

Chut­ney So­ca Artist of the Year

Dru­patee

Ki and the Band

Ravi B

Rasi­ka Din­di­al

Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine

Zess Artist of the Year

Nel­ly Cot­toy

Sack­ie

Tem­pa

Trinidad Kil­la

Yung Bred­da

La­dy La­va

Zess Song of the Year

Tem­pa - All Rid­ers

La­dy La­va - Bob The Builder

Lo­la Doll, Shawn Storm, La­dy La­va - Send It Up

Sack­ie - So D Bad­ness Go

Sack­ie - Who Study­ing You?

Mu­sic Event of the Year

Na­dia Bat­son - Art­form

Patrice Roberts - I Am Woman

So­ca Brain­wash

Stink & Dut­ty

Mu­sic Cruise of the Year

Epic Car­ni­val Cruise