Battle of The Drums Holds Album Launch Concert  

Tonight, the sound of culture and celebration take center stage at the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts as the highly anticipated Battle of the Drums album launch and music concert will highlight upcoming stars and honor legends of the last forty years.  The album features nine award winning songs from the Battle of The Drums events since 2017. President of the Battle of the Drums, Darius Avila, says the event will not only showcase the rich rhythms of Garifuna music, but also highlights a major push to elevate and protect local artists. We spoke with Avila about the significance of this initiative and what audiences can expect from tonight’s showcase.

 

Darius Avila, President, Battle of the Drums

“We’ll be launching the album tonight. The album comprise of nine original Garifuna songs, will be streamed in over twenty streaming platforms. So what does that do for the artists? One, it introduces the artists formally to the world music industry. Two, it provides rights to these artists for their music. Three. It provides protection to the artists to enable them to benefit from their original work. And finally, it monetizes, it brings about a level of monetary benefit to the artists for their original works. So tonight is the launch right here at The Bliss, starting at 7:00 PM. It’ll be in a concert style that we are launching this album. Each artist on the album will be performing their songs. Nine songs will be performed backed up by Sweet Pain 3.0. Pen Cayetano, Adrian the Doc Martinez, Chico Ramos, Mohobub Flores and Peter Poots Flores. So each of these individuals will also be performing during the concert, at the end of which they will be awarded. And finally, those who have gone before us but have contributed significantly to the music, so much so as to take it to the World Music Awards, namely Andy Palacio, Aurelio Martinez and Paul Nabor did that with the Garifuna Collective. So we’ll be giving out Posthumous awards to these individuals – to their beneficiaries.”

 

Tickets are on sale at the Bliss for twenty dollars and the event kicks off at seven p.m. sharp.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: