EARLIER this year, after the 10th anniversary of the Youth View Awards, came word that changes were coming for the popular awards show.

Among the major changes announced then was a name change to Your View Awards (YVA) but now Karen Clarke, the event’s conceputaliser and producer, is revealing that the event is moving to a four-day celebration set for February 22-25, 2018.

“With the evolution of the YVAs, many things are coming. One of the thing is we are creating the YVAs experience where it will be four days of events . Thursday will be an industry party, where we will invite performers, nominees.we’ve invited some record industry A&R representatives from overseas, cause we want them to see our artistes on a platform where they are celebrated . Friday night will be live music by the Kingston Harbour and, of course, Saturday is going to be the night of the show. And Sunday is a post-event,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Perhaps one of the most exciting new aspects of this year’s for Clarke is that she has invited a number of international record company executives to the upcoming event.

“We are really excited about the new element of bringing in A&R executives. These are persons who look to find new talent to develop for record labels. You don’t know who they might see on the YVA stage; they might come to the show and hear the fans chanting for someone who was never on their radar. So what we are trying to do is create opportunities for our brand to be seen in its authentic state,” she said.

The revamped awards show, which returns to the National Indoor Sports Centre in St Andrew, will also feature a number of new categories, while others have been removed from the slate. To be eligible; the work for which you are being nominated must have been showcased between October 2016 and September of this year.

“We added new categories including Favourite Actor of the Year — male and female; Favourite Theatre Play, we’ve added Favourite Dancer of the Year, modern, contemporary or ballet — male and female; Favourite Album of the Year. We did those things because we are widening the scope of our fan base and our fans have grown up. We have taken out categories such as “Young, Hot And Hype” because they are not relevant to us anymore. We are doing all this as part of the growth of the brand; and with Kingston being designated a creative city as well as the home of the YVAs, we just see it as a perfect fit,” Clarke explained.

She is however, mindful of the criticism coming from some quarters regarding the changes.

“It’s “Your View,” meaning it’s for Jamaica, rather than Youth View being one section. When we say “Your View”, means that we are expanding it bringing more people into the award show not just young people. but we are not excluding the youth, but rather we are focusing on it being an award show for Jamaica,” Clarke stressed.