Protoje recently publicly chastised the Government for lack of entertainment spaces.
Consider that Taylor Swift’s 60-show tour grossed over US$1 billion last year, not to mention the economic multiplier effect of what this represented to the local economics of the cities in which she performed, hotel accommodation, restaurant attendance, along with air and ground transportation.
This one tour represents one-fifth of the Jamaican national budget (without debt servicing).
What’s more, Swift not only performed her shows, but at the end she created the Eras Tour film, which began showing in cinemas on October 13, 2023. This made her an additional US$261.7 million globally.
The total gross for the top 100 music tours last year was nearly US$10 billion, up 46 per cent from 2022.
The Bob Marley biopic One Love, which premièred on February 14, 2024, within two weeks grossed over US$100 million worldwide.
Undoubtedly, entertainment and culture are big business.
Over the years, I have been shining a light on Jamaica’s global economic potential if it leverages its culture correctly. Solution after solution I presented it in Parliament and this column.
Excluding debt services, for this financial year culture, at $5.02 billion, represents slightly more than half a per cent of the total government expenditure of $741 billion, with no allocation for capital expenditure. In no way, shape, or form can anyone agree that culture and the arts are priorities for Jamaica.
This is why many of our artists and entertainers feel frustrated that they get more recognition overseas than they do locally.
Moreover, we have not created avenues for large-scale concerts and music festivals because of the lack of venues that meet international standards.
I love and appreciate Protoje and his innovation with the Lost In Time one-night music festival he has introduced annually at Hope Gardens. It is an authentic, first-class reggae concert in Kingston, which gives young revolutionary reggae vanguards a platform to entertain and educate us all.
I have supported this event and will continue supporting him and all our artistes pushing, screaming, fighting, and using their resources to keep our reggae music alive.
Unfortunately, this year, like most music events, after a while, a police officer came on stage and told the band to stop playing while one of the artistes was performing, essentially saying, “The show could not go on.”
Fort Rocky has been designated an entertainment zone and is slated for development. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)
Shortly after, Protoje addressed us: “Yow, Jamaica, dem say no more. Make sure the Government know we need reggae music to play inna Kingston.”
I felt compelled the following morning to post a comment on my social media pages regarding the episode, saying, “…Mi tired a hear ‘bout plans on both sides fi build permanent venues for entertainment. Let’s do it. Without these venues it is unreasonable to be locking down sporadic and infrequent concerts. The project of a permanent, world-class entertainment venue is one that I would gladly support with my time, money, and sweat.”
I have travelled to shows in Europe, the United States, and Asia and seen the hundreds of thousands of patrons who attend 24-hour reggae concerts. Many don’t speak English but know every song word for word. I vividly remember one show in Germany at which the crowd looked like an ocean.
We should never leave our cultural development to chance. We must put money behind this area in the same way we have incentivised the tourism and the business process outsourcing (BPO) industries. I cannot believe I would live to see the day Afrobeats got the televised recognition and coverage at the Grammys before our reggae music.
It is not that I am “bad mind”, but I am a proud Jamaican who knows the impact of how our music has revolutionised the world and transformed the hearts of people internationally, and if we don’t recognise and “big it up a yard” why must we expect others to “big it up abroad”?
True to form, the minister of finance came to Parliament last week and responded to Protoje and the rest of us who have been clamouring to have spaces and places where we can go in the city to enjoy ourselves and listen to music.
“I want to humbly tell Protoje that this Government of Prime Minister [Andrew] Holness listens, and we hear you. Tell Protoje that, with this Government, reggae music will play in Kingston, 24 hours a day, seven days a week… [to] leverage the economic stability in the people’s benefit,” he said.
Minister Nigel Clarke went on in his presentation to say that Fort Rocky will be Jamaica’s first entertainment zone, which would allow for the hosting of events, and “funding of $120 million has been included in the budget to complete the rehabilitation of Jamworld [in Portmore, St Catherine] and Fort Rocky as fully functional 24/7 entertainment zones”.
I want to humbly tell Minister Clarke that he is thinking small.
We are a globally recognised cultural titan through our music, and we need a facility of international standards. At $120m you are talking about a substandard facility aiming at appeasing the public rather than establishing a viable profit-generating venture that Jamaicans will be proud of and tourists will flock to. Furthermore, content creators and producers must ultimately use the facility for live-streaming and global broadcasts.
Therefore, we need a complete entertainment space, facilitating and incorporating open-air concerts, an enclosed music theatre, restaurants, film studios, a sports arena, hotels, and gaming rooms.
In short, a Hard Rock Seminole facility in Fort Lauderdale is a blueprint we should be looking to replicate.
We currently use the Stadium, Jamworld, Plantation Cove, and Catherine Hall as outdoor venues. I have been to all of them, and getting into these venues and getting out is frustrating because of the traffic congestion. Therefore, we must consider traffic ease and control when contemplating where to build it.
I have repeated ad nauseam that for Jamaica to raise the quality of life of all Jamaicans, those in charge must stop thinking small and think globally.
We cannot continue to be satisfied with the ordinary when our people have consistently proven themselves to be extraordinary every time they are given the opportunity.
Entertainment is big business globally. We must give our reggae musicians the platform right here at home. Let’s build it and bring the world to us.
Lisa Hanna
Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member
