Valiant is Male Dancehall Artist of the Year at the 2026 Caribbean Music Awards. The awards team announced the win on Wednesday, Kaboom Magazine reports, and DancehallMag picked it up on Monday, September 29, from the awards’ Instagram post. Kaboom describes it as his second consecutive win in the category.

The deejay’s response was short. “I’m grateful and thankful,” he told Kaboom after the announcement. “Always aiming to become one of the greatest, it’s another step on my journey.”

Five nominations, one crown

Valiant went into this year’s edition with five nominations, per Kaboom: Dancehall Album of the Year for Prove Them Wrong, Dancehall Song of the Year and Dancehall Video of the Year for “Passenger Princess,” Dancehall Performer of the Year, and Male Dancehall Artist of the Year. He took the last of those. Kaboom calls “Passenger Princess” “one of the hottest songs on the streets.”

That makes three Caribbean Music Awards trophies. He collected his first in 2023 as Best New Dancehall Artist, Kaboom notes, and was named Male Dancehall Artist of the Year in 2024. New artist, then male artist twice. The awards have tracked his rise year by year.

A Jamaican crown on a Trinidad stage

This was the first Caribbean Music Awards held in Trinidad and Tobago, after the ceremony moved from New York, Kaboom reports. As we covered last week, the show ran on September 19 at NAPA in Port of Spain, with Shenseea leading the dancehall field and Lila Iké topping reggae. Valiant did not attend the ceremony, according to Kaboom.

DancehallMag’s read of the announcement is worth a look. The Instagram post tagging @valiant_music called him “a standout voice in today’s Dancehall” and said he “continues to deliver the music, momentum, and energy that keep the culture moving forward.” It carried a Jamaican flag emoji alongside the hashtags #VisitTrinbago, #VisitTrinidad, #SoundsOfTheCaribbean and #CaribMA2026. A Jamaican artist winning a dancehall category at a pan-Caribbean show with host-country tourism branding on the post: DancehallMag frames it as both a national win and a regional one, and says the two do not really conflict.

What the post did not say matters too. DancehallMag notes it named no other nominees in the category, did not explain how the winner was chosen, and did not say whether Valiant picked up anything else on the night. We are not filling those gaps here. Kaboom adds that Valiant is still working on new music but is in no rush to deliver another full-length project, with plans to start a new album when the time is right.

Listen and dig deeper

Sources: DancehallMag — “Valiant Crowned Male Dancehall Artist of the Year at 2026 Caribbean Music Awards” (September 29, 2026; Instagram announcement, quoted post language, hashtags, what the post omitted); Kaboom Magazine — “‘To Become One of the Greatest’: Valiant After Male Dancehall Artist of the Year Win” (Kaboom Editors; Valiant quote, second consecutive win, five nominations, move from New York to Trinidad and Tobago, 2023 and 2024 awards, non-attendance, new-music plans).