An edited version of this article appears in the November/December issue of Caribbean Beat magazine as “All Aboard, ship ahoy | The Deal”.
Live music performance in the Caribbean over many years has evolved beyond what one Caribbean writer decades ago noted as, “[taking] pleasure in living up to the ideals of the tourist brochure.” Diverse island music festivals and massive fêtes now dominate the live music scene in the Caribbean. Audiences are now local, regional and international. Tourism is still a driver of these events, with cathartic celebration being a catalyst for prioritising profits and moving the masses. Increasingly in recent years, the context of the live music experience has also changed from the island festival space to a mobile festival with a broader engagement of the senses and the environment.
Island music festivals are back—some recently chronicled in the March issue of Caribbean Beat—and now, so too are Caribbean music-themed cruises that cater for the wanderer looking to elevate their music experience beyond a fete and a disco. This is a new paradigm for how island creativity can be explored and expanded. These cruises have become a new way for soca, dancehall and reggae artists to engage with audiences in new spaces beyond the borders. Those audiences include both Caribbean diaspora citizens, and fortunate travellers to and from the islands who are all looking to amp up the adventure. Seeming non-stop parties and concerts, and exclusive and immersive events featuring food, drink and music make a 5-day cruise a marathon happening in which fun and endurance are equal.
A little context and background: music-themed cruises sprang up in earnest in the early 2000s with jazz cruises, targeted at a late baby boomer and early Gen X crowd, creating a buzz. Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley, son of the legend and his long time manager, Dan Dalton, proposed and launched the Welcome To Jamrock Reggae Cruise in 2014, transforming “the reggae festival landscape into a seascape,” with Billboard magazine calling it “the genre’s biggest event.” A roll call of talent over the years justifies the magazine’s boast: Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Sean Paul, Chronixx, Tanya Stephens, Chaka Demus and Pliers, Steel Pulse, Third World, and the Marley children including Damian and his brothers Stephen, Julian and Ky-Mani, among many more top-selling iconic names. That cruise initiated the island music cruise trend, leading a new wave of cultural entrepreneurs to continue to put together platforms for the proliferation of island genres, and the artists and DJ sound systems who make the music.
Promoters and event coordinators in Bermuda and Hawaii, from Trinidad and Tobago to Jamaica, have seen the nexus between a modern luxury cruise experience and live music above and beyond the old trope of the steelpan player serenading passengers at the poolside. The major cruise lines working the Caribbean Sea—Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Lines—have partnered with these event entrepreneurs to make this a continuing reality. (Island-based fans can hop on Caribbean Airlines to Miami for departure.) Almost every year since Marley’s initiative, a new music cruise are launched.
In 2015, Bermudian Nathaniel Turner along with his partners Daniel Reece and Jodi Lewis launched The UberSoca Cruise, evolving over the years to rank among top music cruises globally, now with multiple sailings and a complete cruise ship takeover. In demand artists who make this a top music cruise include soca royalty, Kes the Band, Destra, Patrice Roberts, Bunji Garlin and Iwer George. Soca music from St Vincent, Barbados, St Lucia, Bahamas, St. Maarten and USVI plays equally with that from Trinidad and Tobago. With casts including Kevin Lyttle, Skinny Fabulous, Rupee, and Teddyson John, a pan-Caribbean soca aesthetic is showcased allowing for a wider reach and definition of the Caribbean soca and Carnival customer.
The spectacle of a Carnival experience on the sea would be duplicated by others in time. Soca on the Seas, conceptualised by Texas-based Trinidadian Juliana Fermin, would launch in 2016, and get immediate buy-in from the Trinidad and Tobago government at that time that was seeing a number of benefits to local artists and musicians, and a positive impact on tourism and local economies. Soca stars such as Olatunji, Erphaan Alves, Problem Child, Jadel, Lil Bitts, and Edwin Yearwood have been included in casts showcasing the depth of soca talent beyond a handful of superstars. Importantly, this cruise has included rhythmically related genres including Afrobeats, chutney soca and konpa on it cruises allowing for a broader Caribbean music experience. This cruise uniquely expanded its footprint outside the Caribbean Sea having multiple soca and Carnival experiences aboard ships cruising Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia impacting visitors there and potentially creating new artist discovery and touring opportunities.
The necessary business of music has been aided by the development of these themed cruises. As the evolution and diversification of the performance platforms take hold, the idea of collaboration and networking among Caribbean artists, even among different genres, becomes apparent within the milieu of the cruise ship. The Love and Harmony Cruise, co-founded by Jamaican Steve “DJ Jabba” Beckford and launched in 2017, boasts that it provides “world-class foundation acts and emerging artistes,” in both reggae and soca.
Insisting that it is targeted at a different market than the Jamrock Reggae cruise, the cast has featured reggae legends like Beres Hammond, Barrington Levy, Elephant Man, Sanchez and Marcia Griffiths, and continues bringing modern dancehall heroes like Buju Banton, Tarrus Riley, Popcaan, Chris Martin, and soca star Rupee.
The Caribbean Carnival experience has long been exported to diaspora cities on the US, UK and Canada and more. Carnival at sea has pivoted in recent years to include land-based fêtes, concerts and adventure. Labadie, Haiti and Harvest Caye, Belize add to island spaces where the performances and parties, and the music that drives them never stop. Before the pandemic, a new soca cruise venture, Melé Cruise, was being planned for a 2020 launch by soca superstar Machel Montano and Tribe Carnival head honcho, Dean Ackin. Ultimately making it debut in 2022, it pivoted into Melé Destinations anchoring the music experience—sans boat—on shore in Cancun, Mexico. Monatno and other top soca and dancehall artists like Voice and Beenie Man headlined that event pointing to a new way to enhance fan engagement and generate revenue for the musicians and the brands. A repeat in 2023 is planned.
Hawaii-based Trinidadian concert promoter Jonathan Mack has added another iteration of a music-themed cruise. In 2023, he and his partners, a number of the top Carnival fete promoters and DJs, launched the Epic Carnival Experience. Here, the cruise ship became an exotic and exhilarating means of transport to the big daddy of all Carnivals, Trinidad Carnival. Departing from Barbados, the ship sailed south with shipboard entertainment including top DJs including Walshy Fire and DJ Puffy, arriving the Friday before Carnival, and then serving as a hotel and floating resort, a “floatel”, for its passengers and for island-based adventurers in search of something different. Opulent entertainment defines the newly founded Lush Trinidad Carnival Floatel, which will continue the hotel-like anchored cruise experience concept into 2024.
The exclusivity and excitement surrounding these Caribbean music-themed cruises and experiences offers artists and DJs a unique marketing and promotion opportunity that can be leveraged to generate buzz, attract media attention, and directly engage fans, ultimately enhancing careers and loyalty. Whether the impulse to develop these cruises was to do something positive for the Caribbean music industry, or simply to create a profitable niche within the larger cruise industry, the continued growth of the island-music cruise points to potential to go beyond borders, beyond the region. There are now dancehall and reggae cruises in Japan! Caribbean music wins, and the new ways for audiences and fans to engage with live music from the islands, either on land or sea, continue to emerge.
© 2023, Nigel A. Campbell. All Rights Reserved.
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