Barbados Prime Minister Mia A. Mottley was the unanimous choice from people of various Caribbean heritage and from different nations. Photo: CMC

“Although we did not count nominations sent to us between January and October 2021, readers suggested Prime Minister Mia Mottley for the 2021 Person of the Year almost every month,” said Everybody’s Magazine’s Grenadian-born publisher Herman Hall.

“However, as soon as nominations became official, the prime minister and Brooklyn’s Borough President Eric Adams received the lion’s share.

“Gone are the days when readers nominated their parents, siblings, countryperson, and prime minister. Judging from emails received, Prime Minister Mottley was the unanimous choice from people of various Caribbean heritage and from different nations,” said Hall, adding that ‘no nominations came in for any other Caribbean head of government”.

Hall recalled that on February 6, 2019, the late founder of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Roy Hastick, at a reception urged guests to get acquainted with Adams.

“Hastick told them that after January 1, 2022, they ‘will have to cross the river or Brooklyn Bridge to see Adams at City Hall. “Hastick predicted correctly, but COVID-19 took him away from seeing his dream come true”

Hall said other personalities nominated for Person of the Year 2021 included the three Jamaican Olympians who swept the women’s 100m at Tokyo 2020 – Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Everybody’s Person of the Year for 2019), and Shericka Jackson.

He said two famous Caribbean entertainers, Barbadian Rihanna Fenty and Trinidadian Nicki Minaj, “also obtained significant votes.”

Overall, 35 persons were nominated, including two unidentified children, Hall said.

The magazine’s Person of the Year, then called Man and Woman of the Year, started in 1978, following its launch on January 2, 1977.