The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN inspirational singer Ricardo Clarke reached a major milestone in his music career by clinching the title, Reggae Single of the Year by the Stellar Award Nominated C-1 Radio Show and the T C Awards.

Known for his hit songs “Not Settling” and “Wasting No Time”, Ricardo has been gathering local and international acclaim for his soulful and inspirational music; performing throughout the Bahama Islands,Turks and Caicos, USA, Canada and the United Kingdom.

After thousands of votes for his latest release “Don’t Count Me Out,” the song was named Reggae Single of the Year by the US organisation that recognises artists throughout the world in various genres doing gospel and inspirational music. Ricardo becomes the only Bahamian to achieve this feat.

“From what I understand, persons were nominated and I was in that number based on the single. The song was released late last year. The C-1 Radio Show and the T.C Awards is basically an urban publication and radio station that services the Gospel and inspirational market in the United States primarily. However, they do have audiences beyond Canada, the UK and the Caribbean,” Ricardo told Tribune Religion.

Since it’s release, “Don’t Count Me Out” was received in twenty countries outside the Bahamas and ultimately became the sound track to those who the odds were against. On the heels of the song’s achievement, “Don’t count me out” will be featured in an American independent film “Finding Forever In Love” later this year.

“I made this sound track for persons who feel challenged. Unfortunately for many of us, we went through the greatest recession since the great depression and the song was written during that time. It is just a reminder to never count yourself out even though you may have an unfavourable situation, you can still get a favourable result. You should never think small, even though you may be in a small circumstance. It’s for anybody who feels like they can bounce back,” said Ricardo.

Ricardo said the C-1 Radio Show and the TC Awards combined is basically a gateway for praise and worship artists, but just recently, they branched out in honouring persons that have a Caribbean flavour.

“I guess my timing was good. When they initially contacted me, I was contacted about just being selected as someone who could possibly win Reggae Single of the Year. It caught me off guard, but nonetheless I am grateful,” said Ricardo.

He said the winning was primarily based on feedback.

“I would get notices of how high the song rotation was at their publication. Based on that feedback, I became nominated and I was alerted. I was asked to direct my audience and fans to a poll. Not so much off of voting, just based on how popular the song became,” said Ricardo.

Ricardo said he will continue to work with the song going internationally. Just recently, he said a video for the song was shot in New York City.

“I went there during the Winter time to shoot the visuals for that video, which will be released very soon to most of the major music publications. We are also going to be doing some travelling; throughout the Family Islands to Andros, Eleuthera and Abaco in the first quarter and we go to Canada in March as well. I have been getting great feedback so the whole idea is to just work it and continue to build,” said Ricardo.