Cameo's 1986 hit "Candy" says, "It's like candy" -- but if you ask the country's newest Music Master it's all about "Shugar".
By day Valarie "Shugar" Richards is a nurse in the burn unit, where she specializes in treating burns and wound care at the Princess Margaret Hospital. At night, she sheds the scrubs for her entertainer's costumes and soothes people's hearts with song in her role as lead singer with the Soulful Groovers Band. And now "Shugar" has another title to her resume -- the coveted one of Music Master.
"Shugar" took home the third Music Masters title for her song "Carryin' On Bad" during the recent Junkanoo carnival weekend. "Carryin' On Bad" is a song about getting on stage for carnival, and carrying on bad in a good way.
She won a $20,000 total prize purse.
The win was a surprise, but a happy one for "Shugar".
"You want to win. You go in to win, but you know, sometimes things happen. You've never seen the judges and you don't know what they're going to do and what they really like. The only thing you can say is you're going to go out there and do you, and call it a day, and hope and pray that you come out on top," she said.
She is all too familiar with this scenario. "Shugar" entered the inaugural Music Masters competition with her song "Bahamas Carnival" (Jump and Wave) which did not even make it into the top 20. Disheartened with the result, she skipped the second competition. After a little prodding, she decided to enter this year's competition. She emerged victorious.
"Someone from Bahamas carnival called wondering if I was entering this year. The deadline had passed, and I wasn't really checking. I said I would lay out. When they called to find out if I was doing anything, I said since they called I would send something."
She went on to write what would become this year's winning song in one day.
"When I'm writing a song I just put my mindset into the actual happening of carnival and then I just see what people do, and then I write. I sing and then I put the words. I do the chorus first and then I hum it through and then I sit, because you don't always use what you start with. You can change the wording if something doesn't match. But as long as you have the melody of the song ... you have the body of the song, you can always go back and change the lyrics. Once you have the verse, and the chorus, and your bridge, then you could always go back and change up the words."
"Shugar" took her song to Colyn McDonald. She sang the melody for him and he went to work producing what would become a Music Masters win. McDonald had also produced "Shugar's" first Music Masters entry.
Also, coming into the money after this year's Music Masters competition were Clay "Q'Pid" Adderley with "Fusion Of Vibes" -- $12,500; Aurelia "Bantangy" Russell with "Dis Ga Be Long" -- $7,500; and Patrice Murrell with "Come To Wave" -- $4,000.
The remaining finalists received $1,000 each -- Philip "Lil Joe" Cartwright with "Sweet Carnival"; Venetia "Ebony" Gibson with "Road Survivor"; Ilsha McPhee with "Here Again"; Carlton "Muzikal" Smith with "My Carnival"; Aurela "Bantangy" Russell with "Island Party"; and Patrice Murrell with "Your Ting".
Sammi Star won the inaugural Music Masters competition; Fanshawn Taylor-Evans was the winner in year two.
This year's win also restored "Shugar's" faith. While she hadn't been certain she would enter the competition again, she said, not making it through did not stop her from singing. Since she was declared the winner people have expressed to her how happy they are that she won.
"They said nothing before its time, and they were so glad it had now happened. They were expecting it the first time I went in, but it didn't happen, so they were happy for me," she said.
She expects great things to happen for her coming off the win. She also said she will continue doing what she does.
"I do me and I have fun," she said.
Actually, this nurse and entertainer happily tells people she has split personalities.
And if she knows nothing else, she says she knows she loves music and to perform for people.
The country's newest Music Master grew up in Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands. In an all too familiar story that musical greats tell, she grew up singing in church and in school. Her teachers would always pick her to "raise a hymn" during morning assemblies. Very early in life she came to realize that she had a voice that people wanted to hear.
She's a natural talent vocally and has never had any voice coaching.
In 1988 she joined the Soulful Groovers Band, which originated out of Grand Bahama in 1964, and today still has one of the original founding members in Vincent Wright who plays the trumpet.
She was a fan that followed the band in her young days, and got her first introduction to the band when her uncle brought them down to the Berry Islands to play in his club at the Graveyard Inn.
Today "Shugar" and the Soulful Groovers Band can be found playing on Tuesday evenings at Compass Point. And they perform almost every genre of music, from jazz to calypso to ballads, so much so that "Shugar" says she can't put herself into just one genre.
"I'm so used to doing so many that it's very easy."
Someone who "loves" music, she can't fathom how people can hear music and not move. She recalled the days when she had to have music in her ear while she studied.
"Shugar" believes her talent comes from her uncles, two of whom sang. She said she used to sit and watch her uncle, Valence Dean, after whom she's named, and who owned the Graveyard Inn, perform.
"I used to sit there and listen, and I loved that. And he loved that I sang," she said.
The Soulful Groovers lead singer has two daughters and a son. Her baby Vanessa, she said, loves to sing, but she doesn't think she's interested in performing or is just shy like "Shugar" was in her younger years.
"Growing up I was very shy. I don't know when I broke out, but now I broke out," she said.
The Music Master has penned a number of previous hits to her credit, including the ever popular "Do Right In" which she co-wrote with her guitar player Edison Rolle.
"I came up with some lyrics, but Edison Rolle who sang the actual song swapped words, tweaked it and made it excellent."
Also on her writing resume are songs like "New Key", "Crab Fest", "Don't Wanna Ga Home", and "242".
She also has a number of songs already written, and, with the Soulful Groovers Band, has an album "Music Salad" out which was written by the members of the band.
The country's newest Music Master is married to law enforcement officer Winston "Vincent" Richards, whom she met and married while he was stationed in the Berry Islands. They relocated to the capital after he was transferred.
Her advice to up and coming artists is to not have an ego. She said an ego is the surest way to career suicide and not getting far.
"Be humble and you will move along; just be themselves," she said.

2017 MUSIC MASTERS AND BAHAMAS JUNKANOO CARNIVAL RESULTS
Valarie "Shugar" Richards -- "Carryin On Bad" -- $20,000 (total prize purse)
Clay "Q'Pid" Adderley -- "Fusion Of Vibes" -- $12,500
Aurelia "Bantangy" Russell -- "Dis Ga Be Long" -- $7,500
Patrice Murrell -- "Come To Wave" -- $4,000
Finalists receiving $1,000 each
Philip "Lil Joe" Cartwright -- "Sweet Carnival"
Venetia "Ebony" Gibson -- "Road Survivor
Ilsha McPhee -- "Here Again"
Carlton "Muzikal" Smith -- "My Carnival
Aurela "Bantangy" Russell -- "Island Party"
Patrice Murrell -- "Your Ting"

ROAD FEVER BEST COSTUME
Bahamas Masqueraders -- Winners for all five sections - $15,000
Road Fever Song competition - Dyson Knight - $5,000

ROAD FEVER BEST OVERALL GROUP
Bahamas Masqueraders -- $7,500
Xtasy -- $5,000
Fetish -- $2,500
Euphoria Madness
Enigma

BEST APPLICATION OF INDIGENOUS MATERIAL
Barabbas Carnival Tribe -- $7,500
Enigma -- $5,000

JUNKAMANIA
High Energy Show Group -- Treco Johnson -- $15,000
Lisa Jayne and The Junkawarriors -- Lisa Russell -- $10,000

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