Singing Ambassador Terry ‘Guyana Baboo’ Gajraj is a ‘Special Person’

Soon, with his lively, interactive style of getting the crowd riled, waving their hands and “giving a shout out” Terry started to become popular. Managers were demanding him as part of their shows.
He has credited the current “shout out” style as something that he started to keep the crowd alive. He was not satisfied with the “standing up and sing style”.

All the DJs are now using it. Things like telling the crowd to raise your hands…wine yuh waist…screw de light bulb…I am proud to say I started that. Everybody picked up on it.”
It was around 1992 that Terry and couple of friends started earnestly working on an album…and that was how ‘Guyana Baboo’ was born.

Using a small, makeshift studio in a Bronx apartment, Terry and another singer, David Ramoutar, recorded eight songs in one night. It was more than a year before the songs started catching on. And strangely enough, before it hit Guyana, it was Trinidad that Terry’s name was beginning to sink in as an artiste to be reckoned with.
The songs were all written with the mandatory Guyana theme, an aspect that he has continued to insist on playing over the years.
It was the soca-mad Trinidad that he did his first big show in the region before his grand homecoming to Guyana.

In 1994, the National Park was packed to its fullest and Gajraj wooed the crowds and tantalized them with his music. But it was his show at Albion, East Berbice, not far from where he grew up, that saw the crowds overflowing the grounds. It was beginning of many more such visits.
“Yes, the ‘90s was the record decade for me.” Big Up
But while Terry is happy that his music has remained part of a Guyanese culture over the years, he is unhappy that local artistes are just not given the needed exposure.
“We see Trinidad and Jamaica and Barbados bigging up their music with the radios playing them all the time. There was a time Trinidad was playing music that was not their own. Then they realized that that was all wrong. It is hypocritical to wake up and hear the radios playing songs predominantly not local. We have good singers, good lyrics.”
Last year, Terry participated in the lucrative TT$1M chutney competition, promising to donate all the proceeds to charity if he won. While he did not win, the Berbice boy is nevertheless is pushing his charity, ‘saveabee.org’. He has sponsored an ongoing computer programme in Cotton Tree, Berbice.
Terry is also making it a habit to do one free show every month, donating the proceeds to charity.
“Growing up in a mandir and I still do go regularly with my family, I do believe I have to give back.”
The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) is now set to honour Terry for his contributions.  He is said to be one of Guyana’s most touring solo singers, performing in Suriname, Holland, Spain, England (notably at the prestigious Wembley Stadium in London) and at all the major carnivals. He has also performed with top names in the soca/calypso arena including the Mighty Sparrow, “Hot Hot” Arrow, Machel Montano, Calypso Rose and Byron Lee, Sundar Popo, Sonny Mann, Ramdeo Chaitoe, Kries Ramkhelawan, Rikki Jai and celebrated Indian performers Babla and Kanchan.
For his contributions to music and his work in showcasing Guyana in the region and around the world, Terry Gajraj is unquestionably a “Special Person”.