Billboard chart-topping reggae artist Romain Virgo and his wife recently found themselves at the center of what they are alleging is classism after they were forced to change venues at the last minute for a gender reveal and baby shower event in St. Andrew, Jamaica. The couple had planned to hold their family invite-only event at a venue in the swanky Constant Spring neighborhood in upper St. Andrew, Jamaica, but issues arose with the venue’s owner unable to grant their request to add some privacy.
The Virgos chronicled their dispute in an episode of the The Virgos YouTube show, saying they had confirmed the venue. “We confirmed a venue, same day, site visit. I think Romain made mention of this and showed you guys already and confirmed. Everything we asked aligned with what we wanted, so we said alright, we’ll lock in the venue and send out invitations,” Elizabeth said.
Then they received a call from Kim, their event organizer, a day before the show, informing them that they would need to change venues. According to Kim, the venue owner was “super disrespectful.”
“We shared that we wanted to do some draping to have some privacy, and he went off on me,” Kim told them, adding that the owner said, “he has had more premium and elegant clients, spending more money, and he name-dropped, called the corporate names, and hung up on her.”
Romain then added his perspective in a video, saying, “Classism in Jamaica is still real, and some people need to just tone down a little bit. It doesn’t matter how much money somebody has or goes to a higher premium, it’s just respect, that’s all. You have a way to deal with people; you can say, ‘Hey, what you are requesting I can’t do.'”
Without name-dropping the location, Romain said, “Beautiful location, everybody knows where that is but I will never ever consider doing anything at that place again.”
Several persons on social media began to speculate on where exactly the location in question is and after several checks, Cedrick Blair, the proprietor of Clubhouse Brewery in St. Andrew, confirmed with World Music Views that he returned monies recently after a request was made by an agent which he wasn’t prepared to honor. However, on Monday he denied the claims of classism or disrespect to anyone, saying, “I didn’t even know it was Romain Virgo. I had no idea who the person was. Somebody was working as an agent or promoter for them, and they wanted to cordon off the brewery. I told them I had several other events there, and if they aren’t willing to work with that, then send me their bank details, and I sent back their money.”
Blair also dismissed the allegations of classism as “rubbish,” adding, “They didn’t declare who they were. I don’t know them, classism? It’s nonsense.” He further explained his reasons for denying their request, saying, “We had several events at the brewery, we had birthday events, and I said those people, we never had to cordon off the venue for them, and we won’t do it.”
When asked if he would be willing to meet with the Virgos, Blair said he saw no reason to do so at this time. “If it’s something that’s libelous in any shape or form, my lawyer will talk to them about it. They are slandering my place and me in the media. Why didn’t they come and meet with me before? If this becomes something that affects my business, then there is another issue I need to solve,” Blair told World Music Views.
The Virgos’ YouTube channel, dedicated to showing the life of Romain Virgo and his family, has over 192,000 subscribers and more than 20 million views. In the latest episode, it was confirmed that the couple will be adding a boy to their family, which already consists of twin girls.
Romain Virgo is currently on a 13-date European Festival Tour following his island-wide The Gentle Man Tour in Jamaica.
