I HAD the pleasure of attending Harbour Nights this week where I heard Lady Tyson sing. Her voice is unbelievable and is not wasted in Bermuda but certainly not being utilised as it could be. Home girl belted out her usual Bette Midler hits, which stir up emotions. She then switched up to a Shirley Murdoch classic, which was later performed by Kelly Price, entitled As We Lay. This one is a banger and Ms Tyson held the small crowd in the palm of her hand. I have to say, of all the songs she performed while I was there, As We Lay moved me the most. It was out of this world, one for the ages. I had my little man sitting atop my shoulders where he sat there for the duration of her set, entranced, immovable, as mesmerised by her voice and talent as I was.

As it was getting late for a seven year old (time flies), we left when she was in the middle of an uplifting rendition of Whitney Houston's I'm Every Woman. She did amazing justice to this female anthem and Whitney would have been proud of her, however, being an entertainer in Bermuda is hard and Lady Tyson's fate is not unlike that of so many other Bermudian performers.

More on this after the Top 20.

Improving to number one is Love is Wicked (Soca Remix) by Brick and Lace featuring Kess.

Advancing to number two is another soca anthem, Defence (the anthem) by Machel Montano featuring Lil Jon and Pitbull.

Up to number three is Take A Bow, a sad love story by one of the hottest pop divas around, Rihanna.

Falling to number four is Trey Songz' new hit, entitled Last Time.

Climbing to number five is Put On by Young Jeezy featuring Kanye West.

Now, shifting to dance music, which is DJLT's favourite. Soaring to number six is When I Grow Up by the Pussycat Dolls, one of the hottest, sexiest and most creative groups around.

Up to number seven is Give It To Me by Madonna, a kicking dance track.

Spotlight, by American Idol diva Jennifer Hudson, advances to number eight. There are a few versions of this track which slam. This may be a bit of a stretch but I remember thinking at Harbour Nights that Lady Tyson's voice is not far off from being as awesome as Jennifer Hudson's. If you don't believe me, go check her out for yourself. Despite being in Bermuda, she has improved.

Improving to number nine is Road Jam, a soca kicker by recent visitor Shurwayne Winchester.

Tumbling to number ten is A Milli by Lil Wayne, who has quietly racked up quite a repertoire of hits.

Slipping to number 11 is Chris Brown's new single, Take You Down.

Down into the number 12 spot is I Luv Your Girl by The-Dream.

Dropping to number 13 is Fall by Kimberley Locke.

Up to number 14 is Jazmine Sullivan with her new hit entitled Need You Bad.

Improving to number 15 is Disturbia by hot girl Rihanna, a smooth dance track that currently sits atop international dance charts.

Climbing to number 16 is The Business by Yung Berg featuring Casha, a current hip hop fave.

Improving to number 17 is Whatever You Like by T.I.

Up to number 18 is Can't Believe It by T-Pain and Lil Wayne.

Falling to number 19 is a former essential new tune, Teenage Love Affair by Alicia Keys.

Tumbling to number 20 is Bust it Baby Part 2 by Plies featuring Ne-Yo.

Now back to this week's words: the difficult life of a Bermudian entertainer.

Many of us know very talented entertainers who have lived in Bermuda. The list is endless. We are talking about The Talbot Brothers, Hubert Smith, the Esso, Coco Cola, Bermuda Strollers and other steel bands, including Gene Steede, Pinky Steede and The Sharks. Those are the entertainers of yesteryear. More recently there have been the Bands Legacy, Twice, The Kennel Boys, Robert Edwards and his crew, James Richardson and Friends, the Merrymen, Tempo (Randy Lambert, etc.), the list goes on.

If you talk to any of them, they will confess that it is difficult to earn a living in Bermuda in the entertainment industry. It wasn't always this way. Part of it has to do with the decline of the tourism industry, which took place over a period of several years. David Gibbons, when he was Minister of Finance and Premier during the 1980s, led the focus away from tourism and towards international business. As the saying goes: "hindsight is always 20/20 vision", so we shouldn't be too tough on him, but since 1980, we have had some 50 hotel closures with most of them closing before 1998. This is staggering. I only feel the need to share that statistic so that people really understand the story.

Granted the current Government has not done enough to increase tourism but let's be real, they inherited a lemon! I heard the Premier on the news this week say that tourism numbers are only down by one per cent as compared to last August. Whilst that may not be as bad as it could have been, it is also not as good as it could have been. Now that, readers, is fair reporting. My brothers and sisters in this profession could take a lesson from that very fair assessment.

This being said, we need to aim for increases even in tough economic times. We have to trim the fat, make deals, cause more hotel development in Bermuda and still create a buzz about our island destination. The point, which I veered away from unintentionally, is that as the tourism industry declined, many hotels closed their nightclubs, which was where local entertainers performed and made their living. Then they began to hire DJs instead of live entertainers possibly because DJs were cheaper. It's cheaper to hire one DJ at $300 or even $400 per night than it is to hire a band of four at a cost of at least $1000 per night.

Also, we have to remember that during the 1980's and 1990's, there was a bit of a shift worldwide to electronic music and prerecorded music. The art of DJ-ing became popular and things changed. What promoters in Bermuda didn't understand was that whilst DJs became more popular, many international establishments continued to employ live entertainment in order to give patrons choice.

I have met with the Bermuda Musicians Union in the past and they are now an decent bunch of entertainers. They were able to wade away from the old regime and are trying to move the organisation, the membership and the Bermuda entertainment industry into the 21st century. This has been difficult but they are on their way. We need a conference and entertainment/performing arts centre in Bermuda where events can held and where young musicians can practice and learn and where older musicians and entertainers can stay on top of their game.

I realise that given the credit crunch and the challenges facing many big companies, like AIG, now is probably not the best time to undertake such initiatives but in a couple of years we will come out of the imminent recession and that would be the time to invest in such programmes.

Every hotel should have a nightclub, be it a large one or a small one. They must provide some form of entertainment for their guests.If I owned or ran a hotel, it would have live entertainment on most nights, if not every night. There I go dreaming again.

Hotel and nightclub owners must cater to guests and provide them with entertainment options.

One of the reasons that potential tourists are going elsewhere is because other places offer many more entertainment options than Bermuda. Bermuda seems to be for the newly wed (who want to stay in bed - with good reason) and the nearly dead (who cannot get out of bed - with good reason)! Boy, that's some of my funniest work!

So, Tony Brannon is right on this one - we need to provide more entertainment for our guests. Other destinations are doing it and visitors are still going to these places, even with a recession on the horizon.

The best strategy during a recession is to continue to develop your existing customer base but to identify new markets from which we can get additional business.

When the "additional business" gets to Bermuda, however, they must have things to do and have multiple night-time entertainment options. This has to be the way forward!

Happy visitor hunting¿