A towering image of Guyanese-born, international superstar, Eddy Grant, on a “Welcome to Guyana” mural at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, (CJIA) was commissioned on July 30, in partnership with the award-winning performer’s Ice Records, and Ringbang Production Company.
The 20 X 12 ft. picture of Grant, holding a flag emblazed guitar, poised in the arrivals gangway for travelers to view as they disembark, is a tribute to the singer’s contribution to Guyana’s performing arts.
According to a release, the management of CJIA is hoping that passengers interface with the image and world-beating music while snapping as many pictures, as they wish.
Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson said, “Guyana owes a debt of gratitude to Eddy Grant for his sterling contributions to this country. He has also been instrumental in bringing much needed international recognition to Guyana through his many achievements worldwide. Therefore, it is without a doubt that I believe that he is worthy of our acclamation.”
Edmond Montague Grant, 72, who was born on Guyana’s East Coast of Demerara, a founding member of The Equals, one of the United Kingdom’s first racially integrated pop groups in gratitude to Guyanese said, “I wish to thank the people of the most beautiful country in the natural world, at this time, for providing a mirror, for the benefit and use of all the least fortunate children of the people of Guyana, for I am from among them. I have had the simple privilege of swimming in our many trenches, canals, rivers and streams of every kind. I have climbed our trees, high and low, to pick sweet, sour and bitter fruit and just as in life, fallen from them after the many stings of the vast array of Marabuntas and bees, only to get up and climb them again, to show who is boss in Hopetown and Plaisance, where my ancestors were enslaved and the coming together of which villages produced me.
Grant, who has released 15 studio albums, 13 compilation albums, and 19 singles, said he was pleased see any achievement of “mine as a mere stepping stone for you, as I expect that you will vastly overtake them. You will bring a greater glory and deeper understanding of the many spiritual and material things that the Creator of all things, has imbued this precious land with.”
He added, “Know, as your young inexperienced eyes gaze up and into this mirror, that the face you see experiencing such transcendent pleasure, is none but your own, regardless of your tribe.
“I am just the template from which you will be molded; Time looks after any and all other matters, because time and nature work together in an unerring perfection, of which, just like myself, so will you be.”
The iconic top 10 Billboard singer, whose hits, “Electric Avenue,” “Walking on Sunshine, Gimme Hope Jo’anna,” “I Don’t Wanna Dance,” “Do You Feel MY Love,” and countless others, that made him a talent to be reckoned with, told Guyanese, “Thank you for looking at this image of me. The next move is yours.”
