Caribbean Artist Breaks his Silence as International heavyweights Benefit from Caribbean Sound.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Aba A. Luke (868-498-4850) Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. April 20 th, 2018-----------Beyonce Knowles is this month, the talk of the town. The Internet remains abuzz, singing her praise for a job well done at the recent Coachella music festival, in California. The Caribbean meanwhile, is pretty quiet and one man who’s been a par t of the enter t ainment landscape for some time, thinks there’s no reason why this cultural hub, should ever be quiet.

US based, Trinidad artist, Leon Coldero and a team of event stakeholders host Flag Fete- a major soca themed event in Florida, next month. He’ll also spread k n o w l e d g e o n t h e C a r i b b e a n’s c u l t u r e w h e n h e a n d h i s t e a m h o s t C u r r y Fes t i n Florida on July 14th. Doubling up as an artiste and event promoter, Coldero says governments in the Caribbean must pull together to strengthen overall marketing and promotion efforts when it comes to Caribbean cultural events, aiding each o t h e r, w h e r e p o s s i b l e, t o e n c o ur a g e a g l o b a l b u z z a b o u t ever y t h i n g t h a t ’s happening in these parts. “Our Caribbean culture is so much bigger than governments make it out to be, but we need that government support throughout t h e r e g i o n t o a i d i n m a r k e t i n g a n d p r o m o t i n g i t m o r e e f f e c t i v e l y,” h e s a i d .

Coldero is the frontline singer of a band he started some time ago, called 868.

He has represented Soca music and the Caribbean in Florida for some time, having worked at the Bob Marley Café at Universal Studios, and like many other Caribbean artistes, performing in various parts of North, South and Central America. He admits however that Caribbean music genres still remain relatively unearthed in comparison to mainstream music genres like Hip Hop, Rap and RnB. It doesn’t escape him however that major international artistes and producers like DJ Khaled, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Justin Beiber, have used the C a r i b b e a n’s s o u n d t o p e r p e t u a t e t h e i r s t a r d o m .

“Trinidad and Tobag o ’s musical ge nres- Soca and Calypso, are still categ o rized m a i n l y i n over s e a s t e r r i t o r i e s a s Wor l d M u s i c o r Reg g a e,” h e e x p r e s s e d , s a yi n g it’s equally impor t ant for Caribbean ar t istes to hold their gr ound and avoid too much diluting of each ge nre’s original sound just to be acce pted by mainstream music markets. “Rupee and Kevin Little had their songs playing on mainstream radio in the US and the majority of the American audience did not categorize t h e s o n g s a s e i t h e r S o c a o r C a l y p s o. We c a n o n l y c ha n g e t h i s by s t a y i n g t r u e t o

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o u r s e l ve s, a n d o u r s o u n d . We m u s t k e e p t h e u n i q u e t r a d i t i o n s of o u r c u l t u r e alive in the music that we put out there, and we must band together and market i t p r o p e r l y,” h e p r e s s e d .

Coldero, whose pre-teen daughter, Jesalee is also creating her own space in the enter t ainment business, visits Trinidad this month. He believes it’s imperative, as a Caribbean artiste, to continuously immerse oneself in the culture. “Losing touch with what makes us who we are, what coats our sound would be career suicide. No matter how much we travel, how immensely influenced we become by North American culture, to change our authenticity for the sake of a quick glance that may be forg o tten because there’s so many like it out there, would be stupid.”

He is now calling on Caribbean leaders to research, understand, invest and build a p ower h o u s e o f cu lt u r a l fe a tu r e s t ha t n o t o u r is t , re c o r d c o m p a n y, o r i n t e r n a t i o n a l m e d i a h o u s e c o u l d t u r n a b l i n d e y e t o. “ We h a ve e v e r y t h i n g i n t h e Ca r ibbea n. We a re a globa l m elting pot, but we must fir st acknowledg e our own greatness before the world can be asked to accept it,” said Coldero.