Etana has sought to address critics who have slammed her and the Jamaican government over her recent USD $5000 grant.
The Reggae superstar was announced as the first female recipient of financial support from the Ministry’s Artiste Ambassador and Tour Support Programme last week.
The Ministry have the ‘I Rise’ singer a grant of USD $5000 (JMD $627,000) to support her 32-city tour of the United States on Thursday, February 8.
Following the announcement Etana was bashed with many labelling the move as a “waste of taxpayers money”.
“Babsy again giving away taxpayers $ and to the same Etana who cuss that in Ja. if you phone 911 you can’t get any help & our minimum wage too low.The US$5000 she got is min. wage for 2 Jamaicans for 1 full year. Since she voted for Trump she needs to get him to subsidize her tour,” one fans wrote on Twitter.
Etana who first seemed unbothered tweeting, “I’m in Cayman today the beach is right next to me… I’m about to go put my feet in the water. Stay happy stay positive.”, has since responded to the backlash and even got some support from some of her fans and peers in the entertainment industry like Dahlia Harris who pushed back on some of the criticisms. “Shelly learn to block it out. Pay them no attention. It’s easy to be filled with hate in this time and some of them never hear better from their parents either how do you expect them to react to you. About 9 billion opinions out there. Live and love life. abriel got me,” Etana wrote.
While Harris chimed in saying, “Etana is also the first female to receive support. So me feel it say a she a get the cussing. Though no one should be cussed, just saying, we never cuss a single male artiste who got support in a programme launched from 2014.”
“Etana isn’t the only artiste to receive support through this programme. Its not new. There are promotional deliverables on her part. It’s Reggae. Nothing wrong with government partnering to maximise the nation brand.,” she added.
Source: The Tropixs