CHRISTMAS is fast approaching and there are many Christmas Carols and Christmas songs on the airwaves. The majority are from the United States. Some are from the Caribbean. Very few are from Guyana. You would have to be of a certain mature age to recall when the Guyanese Christmas Song, “Christmas morning is here again” by Capt. Elmo McKenzie was extremely popular on local radio and elsewhere, for decades. Some Guyanese consider it as the greatest Guyanese Christmas song of all time and pity that it was composed at a time when music videos were yet to come. Of more recent vintage and produced as a music video, is the newer Guyanese Christmas Song “My Baby King”, which was produced by Bonny Alves with a talented ensemble including Charmaine Blackman, Eze Rockliffe and Tiny Duggan, among others. There is a special aspect of this Guyanese Christmas song which is about “The Reason for the Season” – the birth of “My Baby King”, Jesus.

The story behind this newer Guyanese Christmas song is most interesting. Alves relates the following; “In 2008, a friend and associate of mine from the mining town of Linden, Ms Tiny Duggan, told me about a friend of hers who wrote a great composition for a Christmas song and that she would like me to arrange, record and produce it.” The initial idea about the recording of that Christmas song was for it to be recorded with just Ms Tiny Duggan doing the vocals. But knowing Alves, it had to be something much grander. Alves then commenced the production in earnest as he related, “So we made arrangements to meet with the composer of the song, Mike James, and after hearing the piece I was very impressed and decided to take on the challenge.”

That challenge for Alves was to produce a music video worthy, not only of Christmas as a secular holiday but a production with a religious element worthy of “My Baby King”, Jesus. The creative juices in Alves began to flow to a great degree like the mighty Kaieteur Falls. He related it as follows: “I built the track and assembled a team of singers whom I considered among the best voices in the country, they are: Czerina Ali, Pamela Gittens, Eze Rockliffe, Tiny Duggan, Candace Field, Charmaine Blackman, Ashley John, Winston Caesar, Devon Denny and Yours truly.” That is quite an ensemble, but not too difficult for Alves to get together.

When I asked Tiny Duggan about how she felt playing Mary in the music video, she responded by saying, “At first I didn’t think it was right to do it.” Maybe because she is not a teenager as Mary was at the time of the birth of the Baby King, Jesus. However, there was some gentle pressure from the producer. “But Bonny and the rest of the team convinced me to do it.” Her performance has been widely applauded by the public, and she herself is pleased with how she played the part. “Now whenever I watch the video I feel damn good,” she stated. Tiny Duggan is also hopeful that My Baby King, like popular Guyanese Christmas song, “Christmas morning is here again” before it, will become very popular and played at Christmas time in years to come. As Tiny Duggan says, “If DJs on radio and television would push it, it could become a staple Christmas song and one of the best in the Caribbean and further [sic] afield,” she hopes since a lot of work was put into it at a very professional level.

“The most difficult part of the project,” according to Alves, “was distributing parts of the song to each individual that would interpret the melody exactly as I had in my head.” That was a big hurdle for Alves. Having succeeded in sorting that out, he moved on to the next phase of the production. “After this was done, it was smooth sailing and so I recorded, mixed and mastered to an excellent finished product of My Baby King.

For Alves, it was another success story in his professional career as a Music Producer. He was satisfied. “I was so impressed with the finished product that I decided that a video needed to be done. The song was very strong, so it did not require much set designing for the video, but just a simple, plain execution of what was done in studio, resulting in an amazing product, a production well-loved by all who have come into contact with it.”

The song was subsequently included on the ‘SSignal’ Productions Christmas Album Christmas with ‘Ssignal’ which was the first original Guyanese Christmas Album; Arranged and produced by Alves with songs composed by Alves, Tiny Duggan, Winston Caesar, Pastor Lawrence London, Ancel Boston and Basil Bradshaw, and featuring the voices of Alves, Charmaine Blackman, Saskia Charter, Ancel Boston, Tiny Duggan, Devon Denny, Winston Caesar, the Circle of Love and Basil Bradshaw. The hope is that more DJs would give air time to these professionally produced Guyanese Christmas songs. It is really a matter of how patriotic these DJs are and how much the politicians encourage them to be true to themselves and to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. So during this Christmas season and in the years to come, let us hear on our radios and see on our TVs, lots of the Guyanese Christmas song, “My Baby King.”