Grammy-nominated pop-dancehall princess Shenseea and Jamaican dancehall hitmaker Masicka lead the nominations for the 2025 Caribbean Music Awards, with seven nods each.
Notably, Shenseea, who won her first Caribbean Music Award last year for female artist of the year (dancehall), scored her first solo Grammy nomination earlier this year. Her sophomore album, Never Gets Late Here, was recognized in the best reggae album category, ultimately losing out to the Bob Marley: One Love soundtrack.
Soca superstars Patrice Roberts and Kes follow with six Caribbean Music Awards nominations. Dancehall legend Vybz Kartel, genre-fusing soca star Nailah Blackman and Jamaican dancehall stars Chronic Law and Kranium each have five nods. In addition, Trinidadian soca titan Bunji Garlin and reggae luminaries Romain Virgo and Lila Iké are next in line with four nods each.
The Caribbean Music Awards recognizes artists, producers and industry professionals who have significantly contributed to the Caribbean music landscape. This year’s nominations list includes more than 150 nominees across 40-plus categories spanning a diverse range of genres including reggae, soca, dancehall, calypso, R&B and gospel.
This year, the Caribbean Music Awards is introducing seven new categories: Caribbean R&B and Zess-Steam Artist of the Year, International DJ of the Year (Female), Reggae Collaboration of the Year, and Reggae, Gospel, and Caribbean Fusion Song of the Year. The new categories reflect the breadth of Caribbean music and the increasing consumption of particular styles and sounds. “The Greatest Bend Over,” Yung Bredda’s Full Blown-produced smash, became one of the biggest soca crossover hits of the year thanks to its incorporation of Zess.
“Zess has a very large following among the youth in Trinidad, but [those artists] have been struggling to be accepted by mainstream Trini music – which is soca,” Kevon Hart of Full Blown told Billboard in March. “For us, this was a very clever way of combining the two and showing the Zess artists that they do what we do, just in a different way.”
Other notable nominees include Jada Kingdom, Spice, Mical Teja, Lady Lava and Dexta Daps — last year’s most nominated artist — with three nods each.
