Minister of Culture and Community Development, Michelle Benjamin, has clarified that artistes will be paid for their performances at the Flava Village.
She was responding to journalists’ questions regarding payments to Soca artiste Machel Montano at Thursday’s Post Cabinet Briefing.
“It was never said that artistes weren’t being paid at Flava, and I remember when the question was posed to me with regard to Machel, I said that with regard to his backup dancers, with regard to A-team band and I remember the question that was posed, and I answered with regard to where the money went, and on that night, you would have seen that there was a drone show, and different things that we gave to the public. So I remember how the questions were posed. And when it came to Flava, I remember several press conference, and we said that we are providing opportunities for artistes to earn.”
At another press conference on Thursday, Machel Montano confirmed that he will be receiving payment. He noted, however, that he charged significantly lower than his usual rate.
“We have not yet been paid. We have also agreed to wait until whenever, right? We have also paid our people who performed out of our pocket for that. And we understand the financial burden of the country right now. So we actually even went lower than a third of what we charge. Lower than a third, I could promise you that. I’ll just say it, because I understood what it was about. But it’s not like we could get up and mobilise our entire unit for free. People work for us, so we must get paid because we have to pay those people. In those situations, we don’t pay ourselves.”