Magnum Names Selector Boom Boom As Newest Brand Ambassador

Saturday night carried double joy for music selector Boom Boom. Beyond the much-anticipated Gaza-Gully reunion that was already shaping up as a landmark night for dancehall, the selector walked away with a personal triumph of his own: he was named an official brand ambassador for Magnum.

After working the audience through a string of hits, Boom Boom, whose given name is Marlon Wizzard, was invited up to the stage. There he stood alongside Joe Bogdanovich, chief executive of DownSound Entertainment, and Brandon Wallace, Magnum's brand manager, as the brand confirmed him as its latest ambassador.

“We have a deep appreciation for everything that you have done for your community, for elevating new talent in dancehall and just being the baddest MC. We want to now give you a token of our appreciation and present you as our newest ambassador of Magnum,” Wallace told him. The selector was then handed a custom black and red leather jacket with his moniker stitched across the back, sitting above a Magnum-branded music box.

The honour was one Boom Boom had wanted for years, and the moment overwhelmed him to the point of tears.

“Tears come to mi eye, but mi let out couple tears man. Me always a say I am brand ambassador for Magnum when I never was a brand ambassador for Magnum, because they just sponsored my event Boom Sundays and Uptown Mondays. So I am claiming this from a decade or more, and fi see it really happened, it's like a dream come through and mi just overwhelmed. Even right now talking with THE STAR, tears feel like it a come,” he said.

Still wearing the new jacket, he told THE STAR that the news caught him off guard, even though he sensed the organisers were planning something.

“Mi say Joe tell me that Magnum going to do a little surprise for me, but me never know it be like a contract or I am going to be their ambassador, because you can see, enuh, a when Brandon a talk mi get the jacket. So mi just want to go home and give God thanks and all the people that supported me throughout the years,” he said.

Now counted among the most in-demand sound system selectors, the Grant's Pen, St Andrew, resident got his start on the Invaders sound system in that same community. He said that across his career he has stayed devoted to keeping Jamaican dancehall culture thriving.

“People see the hard work mi do over the years. Them might nuh like and comment, but them see the work. Mi travel like every weekend all over the world a represent dancehall, and you know Magnum tonic wine a champion for dancehall,” he said. “Them a the champion and me now a the face a dancehall as a selector in a the new generation, so everything just match up now yuh zeet,” he added.

Once the jacket was on, the selector faced the crowd and showed off the custom artwork on the back before stepping to the front of the stage and dropping to his knees in thanks. The heartfelt moment drew loud cheers from patrons and set off a round of fireworks.