By: Staff Writer
January 8, 2021
A Barbadian Soca and Calypso icon will be performing at this year’s United States virtual presidential inauguration party for incoming vice president, Kamala Harris.
Edwin Yearwood, band leader of the world famous Krosfyah out of Barbados, told Caribbean Magazine Plus about being tapped to perform at this year’s US virtual presidential inauguration party: “I feel blessed. I feel honoured, excited, a little emotional, very proud. There is a whole host of emotions from the standpoint that this is history in the making.”
Yearwood is not the only Caribbean act performing at the virtual event, as reported by the Jamaica Observer so too is Jamaican gospel singer Joan Meyers, Guyanese Menes De Griot and Shanto; Vincentian Frankie McIntosh as well as emerging acts Toni Norville, Kirk Brown, Janine Jkuhl, Owen Dalhouse, Maxie Gouevia, and Rashid Thorpe.
The virtual event will be held on January 17 and was coordinated by the Caribbean American Action Network (CAAN) in their attempts to celebrate the rise of Ms Harris to the second highest post in the world.
Ms Harris too is of Jamaican descent through her father, Jamaican born professor in economics, Dr Donald Jasper Harris, who is professor emeritus at Stanford University in California.
Mr Yearwood also said: “For the first female vice president, the first black female Vice President and the first black vice president with heavy Caribbean roots, we just want to be able to congratulate her I wish her well to watch her do her best. We know she will not let us down.”
Also reported by the Observer the inauguration party is also being co-hosted by the first black woman in a James Bond movie, Trina Parks, whose roots extend to Barbados, through her mother, and to Antigua through her grandparents.
The performing acts as mentioned is a good menagerie of Caribbean musical talent from Jamaica, to Guyana to Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The live stream will kick-off at 7pm on January 17, on the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube platforms of One Caribbean Television (OCTV).
Mr Yearwood continued, “So it’s going to be a pleasure and an honour to be able to just be a part of the entire event. You know, I think that she’s going to do a fantastic job. I think that she’s going to be one of those capitalists in bringing the world back together. And it’s important to show her the love and respect that we have for her and pray that we have for her in the Caribbean.”
In addition to this honour, Mr Yearwood also told us that his band Krosfyah celebrated 31 years of performing on December 31, 2020. Quite an achievement for them!