Music

While stadium shows dominate this year’s live music headlines, there’s another interesting trend occurring at the arena level that’s signaling a new frontier for the live music industry – and it’s steeped in the sweet riddims of the Caribbean.
Vybz Kartel’s victorious comeback has dominated most of the conversation around Caribbean music this year, but Worl’ Boss’ two-night stint at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center came nearly a year after a string of historic headlining shows that have made Elmont’s UBS Arena New York’s hottest new venue for Caribbean acts. Elmont (a neighborhood that sits on the edge of Queens and Long Island) and Brooklyn are two New York City areas densely populated by Caribbean-Americans, which echoes the incredible impact of Caribbean immigrants across the city. You’ll find Dominicans in Manhattan’s Washington Heights; Jamaicans, Lucians and Trinis galore in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood; and at least one flag from every country in the West Indies along Eastern Parkway in BK.

Last spring (April 14, 2024) — about eight months before he made history with NPR’s very first Tiny Desk soca set – Machel Montano headlined UBS Arena for a 40-year career anniversary concert hosted by Caribbean Concerts & Sonjay Maharaj Events. Coming two years after the King of Soca teamed up with Jermaine Magras, president and CEO of Jay Upscale Marketing and Promotions, for Barclays Center’s first-ever soca headlining concert, Machel’s sold-out UBS show grossed over $885,000 from 8,350 tickets sold, according to Billboard Boxscore. That show kicked off a head-turning run of Caribbean-headlined shows at the four-year-old arena.

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Just three months after Machel lit up Elmont, Grammy-winning reggae and dancehall legend Buju Banton mounted a pair of sold-out shows that served as his first U.S. concerts since his 2011 incarceration. The two shows grossed $4.5 million from nearly 30,000 tickets sold, setting the scene for a historic close to UBS Arena’s 2024 run of Caribbean-headlined shows.

“Stepping into UBS Arena for the first time in my life was much more than I expected,” reflects Montano, who’s previously performed at NYC’s two other major arenas. “I hadn’t heard about the venue before, and I was in anticipation to see what the vibe [would] be. The production setup was wonderful, the backstage experience in the dressing rooms, the staff, everybody [and everything] was professional and on point to welcome soca music and the soca vibration.”

A few days before the world rang in 2025, iconic Haitian konpa band Carimi reunited for its first live performance in eight years at UBS Arena. Comprised of founding members Richard Cavé, Mickael Guirand, and Carlo Vieux, Carimi is something like “the Jackson 5 or the Backstreet Boys of the Haitian community,” says Magras. “They’re [their] R&B boy band.” In the nearly two-and-a-half decades since they formed in NYC back in 2001, Carimi has achieved international success through its blend of sociopolitical commentary and traditional konpa rhythms. Their 2013 Invasion LP reached No. 2 on World Albums, and their eight-album strong catalog continues to enamor konpa lovers across generations. While their Dec. 27 concert didn’t launch a full comeback, the show did mark the first U.S. arena show headlined by a Haitian act – and the band completely sold out the venue. With over 15,000 tickets sold, Carimi’s reunion show grossed over $2.4 million.

The Carimi show is an interesting nexus point for many reasons, mostly because of the band’s connection to the demographic breakdown of the Elmont neighborhood in which UBS resides. In Elmont, you’ll find a large Haitian population that’s even bigger than the already sizable number reported by the U.S. Census. The nature of cities like New York is that the census only tells a part of the story regarding the demographic breakdown of the city’s residents.

“With the Caribbean community, a lot of people tend to look at the census — but if you’re undocumented, you ain’t trying to give the government your information. It’s a benchmark, but it’s not that accurate,” explains Magras. “When we did a heat map of ticket sales for the Carimi show, a majority of people buying tickets came from Queens, in and around UBS [in Elmont].”

Now that America’s Caribbean population – spearheaded by a massive post-Civil Rights Era immigration wave, and, later, a 1980s and ‘90s wave — has established itself across several generations, they have the numbers and buying power to assert themselves as dedicated consumers in the live music space.

Before his current position as senior vice president of programming at UBS Arena, Mark Shulman spent over 25 years promoting shows across New York, including storied venues like Hammerstein Ballroom and Kings Theatre – two spots with smaller capacities that Caribbean acts often frequent. While Caribbean acts still headline those venues, alongside newly renovated music halls like the Brooklyn Paramount, their graduation from theaters to arenas signals “a maturing of the music and fan base,” according to Shulman.

“When we speak of the maturing of the audience, Caribbean shows were always late-selling events,” he explains. “Now, we’re seeing more advanced sales, and that enables the artist to plan better. They get to add a second show and plan accordingly, because the audience is being so proactive in their buying patterns.”

The original fans of acts like Carimi and Machel Montano and Buju Banton are, by and large, in more favorable economic positions than they were two decades ago. They’ve gotten to root themselves in their new homes, and they likely have the disposable income to buy pricier arena tickets. But their maturation only tells half of the story of how UBS, in particular, has become such a hotbed for Caribbean headliners.

For Valentine’s Day 2025 (Feb. 14), Grammy-nominated reggae giant Beres Hammond, Billboard Hot 100-topping reggae icon Shaggy and Grammy-winning dancehall legend Sean Paul teamed up for a joint concert that grossed over $1.6 million from 12,980 tickets sold. The following month (March 28), WAV Music Fest – featuring Spice, Dexta Daps, Chronic Law, Kranium, Skeng, Kraff and Valiant – grossed over $1.2 million from 10,360 sold. With five $1 million-grossing Caribbean-headlined shows in eight months, UBS Arena has emerged as not just a go-to spot for Caribbean acts stopping in NYC but also as a key venue in the evolution of Stateside Caribbean music consumption. And the arena’s management did it by embracing the existing immigrant population in an era where rampant gentrification seeks to stifle New York’s quintessential diversity.

Before UBS opened its doors in 2021, most arena acts across genres chose between performing at Midtown Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden and Downtown Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which has only been around for 13 years. Prior to the turn of the decade, very few, if any, Caribbean acts were playing arena shows, period. Thanks to the increasing Stateside popularity of contemporary reggae, dancehall, soca and konpa music — and the opening of UBS — Caribbean acts are now getting an opportunity that they weren’t granted in the past.

Of course, NYC’s Caribbean population doesn’t exclusively attend Caribbean-headlined shows. If they wanted to see arena acts before 2020, those folks, who primarily live in Brooklyn (outside of downtown) and Queens, would either have to trek into the city to hit The Garden or waste away hours in downtown traffic. Thanks to its location, UBS is a venue that’s comparatively more easily accessible for the city’s Caribbean crowd. It’s also the only NYC-area arena with its own parking lot, a key draw for attendees who would rather hop in their cars than deal with the subway.

“When you get [to Barclays], you gotta look for parking,” says Magras. “The time that it takes me to [travel within] Brooklyn is probably the same time it takes me to jump on the belt and head to UBS. I think the customer weighs all those things out.”

While consumers get to cut down on travel time, promoters and artists also get to save a few dollars when mounting shows at UBS instead of Barclays or The Garden. Promoted by George Crooks’ Jammins Events, Banton’s dual comeback shows, which cost around a million dollars each, would have been at least $500,000 more expensive had they gone up at The Garden. “You’re paying for the location and the brand, you can’t take that away from [MSG],” he said. “But it’s very expensive. UBS is a lot more reasonable, and I hope it stays that way.” As the arena continues to grow in popularity, it’s certainly likely that it’ll become more expensive to mount shows there, which is probably why UBS banks on their accommodating nature to keep artists at their venue.

Ahead of the Carimi show, Shulman “personally got on a Zoom with all the band members [to] hear their thoughts and hopes for the show and how [UBS] could accommodate them in any way possible.” Magras, whose Jay Upscale company promoted the Carimi show, seconds that sentiment, noting how willing the UBS team was to educate themselves on the band via the decks he pitched.

“[UBS] was more accommodating than probably any other venue that I’ve worked with,” he tells Billboard. “It was never ‘no’ as a final answer — they always helped find a way to make things work. [To help promote the show, they helped secure] comedians, a conference with about five media houses, the Carimi guys, lights and everything.” Crooks also echoes those feelings, saying, “Mark understands the business because he comes from doing business with a lot of Caribbean acts.”

But it’s not just Shulman’s experience that helped UBS so quickly become a stronghold for Caribbean headliners; it’s also the care he and his team take in listening to the arena’s staff, a notable chunk of whom are local Caribbean-Americans themselves.

“30% of our staff come from the local community,” Shulman says. “I would have conversations with them about soca music and reggae and konpa, and it was great to hear from them. I can [call on] my music experience, but it’s so much more validating when I can speak to members of the community who live with this music. That type of knowledge and experience can’t be replicated just by doing some research.”

UBS’ open relationship with their staff also mirrors the dynamic they’ve fostered with local vendors, navigating the present-day live music venue ecosystem with a distinctly Caribbean and community-centric approach. When Caribbean shows visit UBS, the arena rotates its in-house food and drink vendors with items that correlate to the nationality of the headlining act; they also invite local food trucks and businesses to set up activations in their expansive parking lot. It’s a relatively minor move that only makes the arena feel more “of the people” than its competitors. (Crooks acknowledges that the venue’s efficacy in this area still can vary between shows, saying he and his team head “some interaction with local vendors [for the Banton shows], but not as much as [they] would have liked to.”) 

And the arena’s staff also understands the importance of not overstepping its bounds when it comes to engaging with the culture. “When you look at Caribbean people, they’re natural entrepreneurs,” notes Magras. “Once we see that there’s something big going on, we all converge and find [different] ways to make money. There [were] about 10 after-parties [for the Carimi show] — we [hosted] none. Why? Because we understand the ecosystem and what it means for other people to make money as well. We could have sold flags, but we allowed the flag man to sell his. We [also] brought in Haitian food vendors and liquors and barbeque brands.”

With two additional Caribbean-headlined shows this year – Aidonia (May 3) and Beenie Man (May 24) – UBS is looking to continue its hot streak in 2025 as various styles of Caribbean music ride a crossover wave that’s carrying the next generation of stars. From Yung Bredda’s Zess-infused soca hit “The Greatest Bend Over” and Moliy’s Billboard chart-topping Afro-dancehall smash “Shake It to the Max” to YG Marley’s reggae anthem “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” and Joé Dwèt Filé’s globe-conquering konpa banger “4 Kampé,” the 2020s are offering up a slate of stars that could be the next Caribbean headliners to grace UBS – and arenas across the country. They could even make that jump in the next 12 months, according to Shulman, as the success of Caribbean legacy acts eases promoters’ qualms about taking on younger stars – like Shenseea or Dexta Daps – looking to make the leap from support acts to headliners.

In just four years, UBS has become a preferred New York tour stop for Caribbean headliners – so much so that scheduling conflicts were the only barrier stopping the arena from hosting Kartel’s comeback shows – by leveraging its location, nourishing their relationship with the local population, and understanding the limitless potential of Caribbean talent. As the arena has established a distinct identity, it’s also helped buoy an entire region’s music, which was already creeping into a new era of Stateside crossover success.

But what about arena stops outside of New York? Last year, Buju Banton announced his Overcomer Tour, which was initially set to visit 14 arenas across the U.S. Ultimately, three shows were outright cancelled while a further five engagements have yet to have their rescheduled dates announced. Of the seven shows that he did perform on the tour, Banton grossed an average of $1.5 million per show from around 10,800 tickets sold. Notably, those seven shows visited North American cities with sizable Caribbean populations – NYC, Atlanta, Tampa, Toronto and Washington, D.C. — signaling that future Caribbean tours might not yet have accrued the power to headline arenas outside of specific areas. Nonetheless, a Caribbean act headlining seven North American arenas on a single tour indisputably marks a new era for West Indians in the live music space.

“I think the sky’s the limit [for Caribbean acts in the live music space],” stresses Shulman. “I’ve seen the growth and I’ve seen the performances. The shows are energetic, the fans are enthusiastic, and there’s an incredible vibe. It’s hard to envision any limit to just how high it can go.”