ROSEAU, Dominica – August 20, 2026 – When a formative career opportunity opens doors that change the trajectory of a professional’s journey, few choose to lock that door behind them. For Jael Joseph, a Dominican multimedia producer and established media personality who earned her own breakout spot at the Caribbean Music Awards three years ago, the call to lift up the next generation of regional storytellers could not be ignored.
Through her production company Black Island Girl Multimedia, Joseph has launched the Black Island Girl Caribbean Media Correspondent Video Contest, a region-wide search that will grant one aspiring media professional an all-expenses-paid spot on the red carpet of the 2026 Caribbean Music Awards, set to take place September 19 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The contest winner will receive covered round-trip flights and accommodations for the event, where they will serve as the official red carpet correspondent for Black Island Girl Multimedia, interviewing A-list Caribbean musicians, entertainers and industry icons.
For Joseph, the initiative is far more than a promotional giveaway—it is a full-circle gesture rooted in the gratitude she feels for the opportunities the awards have given her. “Three years ago, the Caribbean Music Awards gave me my first big break, inviting me to host on its main stage, and I got to return last year to lead red carpet interviews with some of the region’s biggest stars,” Joseph explained in an announcement of the contest. “Those opportunities gave me the visibility, connections and on-the-ground experience that shaped who I am as a Caribbean media professional today. Now it’s my turn to pass that opportunity forward. There is so much untapped, incredible talent across our islands—people who know our culture inside out, have magnetic personalities, and can tell our stories authentically. I want to give one emerging voice the chance to step into the spotlight, represent their home island and our whole region, and experience this moment for themselves. Sometimes all it takes to launch a career is one chance.”
Unlike traditional media talent searches that rely on resumes and pre-taped auditions, this contest is designed to highlight contestants’ creativity, cultural fluency and ability to connect with audiences. The competition is open to all aspiring and emerging media professionals—including content creators, journalists, podcasters, and aspiring hosts—who currently reside in any Caribbean nation. To enter, candidates must produce a 60 to 90-second video that answers two core prompts: why they are the ideal representative of Black Island Girl for the red carpet, and how Caribbean music genres shape the daily cultural identity of people across the region.
Once completed, entries must be posted to a public Instagram account with tags for three official accounts: @caribmusicawards, @blackislandgirl2, and @jaeljoseph. Entrants are also required to follow all three accounts to be eligible. The contest structure builds on community engagement, encouraging candidates to rally support from their home islands, local communities, and online networks. The winner will be selected based on total audience engagement, including likes, shares, comments, and overall votes from the public—a design that Joseph says does double duty: it builds regional pride and encourages a broader public conversation about the central role music plays in Caribbean identity.
“Whether it’s Bouyon, Soca, Dancehall, Reggae, Calypso, Dennery Segment, Zouk, Kompa, or any of the other countless vibrant sounds that come from our region, our music is the story of who we are as a people,” Joseph said. “I can’t wait to see how the next generation of Caribbean communicators tells that story.”
Black Island Girl Multimedia is partnering with regional tourism boards, cultural institutions, local media outlets, universities, youth organizations, entertainment platforms, and diaspora influencers to spread the word about the contest across every corner of the Caribbean. From Dominica and Jamaica to Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, The Bahamas, Belize and beyond, the search for the next breakout Caribbean media voice is officially underway.
The contest will close for entries on September 5, 2026, with the winner scheduled to be announced publicly three days later on September 8. The selected correspondent will then travel to Trinidad and Tobago ahead of the 2026 Caribbean Music Awards to take their place on the red carpet on September 19. The mission behind the contest is simple: to lift up an underrepresented regional talent, and give them the platform to be seen and heard on one of the Caribbean’s biggest entertainment stages.