Music of Bermuda
Summary
Bermuda's musical region combines the locally distinctive Gombey tradition with reggae, soca, gospel, songwriting, rock and spoken-word performance. Its Atlantic location and connections to Caribbean, North American and British musical worlds produce several overlapping repertoires. Gombey troupes make music through the close relationship of drumming, dance and costume, while recorded artists and community stages work through different forms of expression.[1][2][3][4]
Collie Buddz's reggae, dancehall and hip-hop collaborations illustrate one international pathway. Heather Nova's songwriting illustrates another. Neither should replace the account of local ensembles, churches or participatory performance, which provide settings in which musical skills and shared repertoires are sustained.[5][6][7]
Contemporary and trending
The Gombey tradition remained publicly active in October 2026. The government documented the festival held on 3 October, with troupes including Place's New Generation, SMS Village, Gombey Evolution, Phoenix, Warwick, Vibe Tribe, Gombey Warriors and H&H. The event honored the late Zaniko Hendrickson and included the PHC Majorettes and Drum Corps. This is evidence of a living network of groups and commemorative relationships.[8]
Recent recordings extend the picture. Collie Buddz's official catalogue lists the 2025 singles “Spark Up” and “On My Way Back Home.” Heather Nova released Breath and Air in February 2025, recording in Devon with Chris Bond and collaborators including cellist Midori Jaeger. Their work connects Bermudian musicians with geographically dispersed production and audiences.[9][6]
The island also participates directly in touring Caribbean music: Machel Montano's past-show list records a June 2026 appearance at Admiralty House Park. Gospel Fest's May 2025 programme brought Hezekiah Walker together with Last Call and a mass choir in St David's. Chewstick continues an open-mic setting for new songs, spoken stories and emerging performers.[10][7][3]
History
Gombey history predates emancipation, with later Caribbean migration adding to an already evolving practice. The Bermuda's Musical Connections resource describes connections with St Kitts and the Bahamas and a sound joining British military-band instruments with African and Caribbean rhythmic relationships. The distinctive Bermudian form emerged through this history of combination and local transmission.[2]
Individual troupes continue to shape that inheritance. Vibe Tribe's own history identifies its 2023 founders, Vaughronde' and Lisa Joseph, and connects his experience of Gombey dance with her work on regalia. New organizations can therefore extend a longstanding practice without implying that each troupe follows an identical style.[11][1]
Tourism and churches created other musical networks. The Talbot Brothers' “Bermuda Buggy Ride” belongs to the island's history of popular entertainment, while sacred repertoire circulated through congregations and overseas missions. More recently, Chewstick, founded in 2003, has provided space for music and storytelling across established and emerging voices.[2][3]
Genres
Gombey music is organized around the interaction of dancers and drummers, with snare and bass drums, cowbells and whistles among the documented instruments. Its rhythms, costume and movement form one performance practice. The Department of Culture emphasizes recognizable differences between troupes, making close attention to a particular group more useful than assuming a single standardized routine.[2][1]
Reggae and dancehall circulate through records as well as live settings. Collie Buddz's Take It Easy combines those approaches with hip-hop collaborations, showing how a Bermudian artist can participate in several international recording networks. Soca's presence is especially visible in carnival-related events and touring performances, including Montano's documented Bermuda appearance.[5][10]
Gospel involves congregational participation, choirs and featured singers; the 2025 Gospel Fest programme explicitly brought these forces together. Songwriting and spoken word offer another set of textures. Nova's Breath and Air gives melody, voice, intimate themes and instrumental arrangement a central role, while Chewstick's open mic leaves room for spoken narrative and song within the same gathering.[7][6][3]
Artists
Collie Buddz's Take It Easy includes collaborations with Bounty Killer, B-Real, Demarco, Danny Towers and Keznamdi. Those credits help explain its crossing of reggae, dancehall and rap networks; its production also involved Buddz and Jason “J-Vibe” Farmer. The official catalogue provides a route from that 2023 album to subsequent singles.[5][9]
Heather Nova's Breath and Air supplies a contrasting listening path through songs about connection, loss and recurring emotional patterns. Her local relationships are also documented: a 2011 Bermuda Festival review describes appearances by rapper Kase and spoken-word artist Stephan Johnstone alongside her performance. This older event is useful evidence of artistic exchange, not a current festival lineup.[6][4]
Gombey troupes deserve recognition as collective creators. Vibe Tribe's founding account makes visible the intertwined work of dancing and costume design, while the 2026 festival record names a much wider field of practitioners. Last Call and the choirs participating in Gospel Fest point toward yet another performance community. Such groups are essential to an account that might otherwise be dominated by internationally distributed solo artists.[11][8][7]
Boundary definition and research
The approved region includes Bermuda's islands as a single musical area. This is an Atlantic region with strong Caribbean connections, not an assertion that Bermuda is geographically within the Caribbean Sea. Its coastline gives the visual boundary, while the text follows musical relationships that reach well beyond it.
The inventory's provisional designation is retained: direct comparable evidence for territory-wide listening preferences remains limited. Recent festival reports, community accounts and artist catalogues substantiate particular practices and releases, but do not establish that soca, reggae, rock, rap or gospel has a uniform share of the audience. The outline is an editorial aid to exploration. Gombey troupe differences, church networks and the distinction between domestic performances and overseas careers remain important within this compact geographic region.
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bermuda Gombey Festival, Bermuda Department of Culture.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Bermuda’s Musical Connections, Smithsonian Institution / Ronald Lightbourne, VeJay Steede and Diana N’Diaye.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Chewstick Foundation, Chewstick Foundation.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Festival Review: Heather Nova & Friends, Bernews / Alan C. Smith.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Take It Easy, Collie Buddz / Harper Digital.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Heather Nova — Music and biography, Heather Nova.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Gospel Fest makes a comeback this weekend, The Royal Gazette / Stefano Ausenda.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Gombey Festival 2026 Brings Bermuda’s Cultural Heritage to Life, Government of Bermuda.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Music — Collie Buddz, Collie Buddz.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Past Shows — Machel Montano, Machel Montano.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Our history — Vibe Tribe Gombeys, Vibe Tribe Gombeys.