BASSETERRE, St. Kitts- INTERNATIONALLY-ACCLAIMED Jamaican Reggae icon, Beres Hammond gave patrons a rocking-good time and a sweet show-stopping performance, which brought an electrifying end to night two (June 28) of the 17th annual St. Kitts Music Festival.
The night mostly featured the pulsating vibrations of Reggae and Dancehall music with thousands turning out at Warner Park to revel in the entertainment excitement of the 17th annual event.
The other performers were from Dejour, Dagah, Charles Emanuel of St. Kitts and popular Jamaican Reggae and Dancehall entertainers, Christopher Martin, Shaggy and Konshens.
Minutes before Beres Hammond emerged onstage, the crowd shouted and cheered with much anticipation, ready to welcome him.
“Sugar City....family!” Beres belted, greeting his fans and music lovers upon entering the stage, which was immediately met with appreciative shouts and cheers from the audience.
Occasionally, he echoed his signature ‘Hush’ word while delivering an exhilarating performance.
In his two-hour-plus delivery, Beres rendered songs such as ‘No Goodbye’, ‘Can’t Stop A Man’, ‘Step Aside’, ‘No Disturb Sign’.
The audience was treated to a special performance which saw Beres Hammond extending an invitation to Shaggy onstage to perform “Fight This Feeling”, a new song which both men penned.
Backed by Limitless Band and with energetic female back- up vocalists, hip hop artistes Dagah and Dejour gave a vibe of nationalistic niceness, with Dejour being the opening act. The 16- year-old performed his pop songs which included “Don’t Love Me’ and Get on the Floor’ featuring Dagah.
The two iRep SKN music group entertainers, who performed for about 18 to 25 minutes, incorporated the popular all-male SKB Best Dancers into their acts.
During his “Get on the Floor” performance, Dejour did an impression of a dance made famour by the late Michael Jackson while encouraging people to dance.
Hip-Hop artiste, Dagah gave a high-energy performance while 'spitting' his rap lyrics. He did one of his patriotic songs called 'I Rep My City' and others including ‘Give it up for the Hustler’, ‘Never Give Up' and 'Your Time To Cry'.
Those acts were followed by Charles Emanuel whose near half hour R&B performance included ‘Paradise’ and the title track ‘Invincible’ from his mixtape.
He and fellow national artiste Makeila ‘MiMi’ Armstrong did their self-penned song called 'Speechless'.
Jamaican Dancehall artiste Christopher Martin opened his performance with ‘Watch Me Lord’ as he asked the concert-goers to “raise hands if you believe in the Almighty”.
Going into his popular ‘Melody to my Song’, a dancehall frenzy was fuelled by his adoring female fans.
He improvised lyrics to sing out “Who all want fi break up me and my St. Kitts ladies, that nar go happen,” which of course pleased his female fans.
Songs which followed were ‘Driver’, ‘Paper Loving’, ‘Girlfriend’ and ‘Mama’
Christopher Martin shared that “St. Kitts ah me chill spot chill” while dishing out the popular ‘Chill Spot’ song.
He also did songs that he “grew up on” including Otis Redding’s I’ve been loving you too long’, Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring It Home To Me’ and ‘Let’s Get It On’ originally performed by Marvin Gaye.
He started taking off his shirt while the music began playing for ‘Let's Get It On’ which was also was a hit for his female fans.
Additionally, he treated the audience to a new song called "Just like you’ which honours the role model ways of his father including his loving attitude towards his mother.
Shaggy in his near one-hour performance dished out songs like ‘Strength of a Woman’, ‘Lucky Day’ and ‘Church Heathen’.
Having had his debut performance in 2003 and a return in 2006, Shaggy told the audience... “St. Kitts long time me nuh see you!”
The ‘Mr. Lover Lover’ artiste gyrated throughout his show with his signature moves and groves...and of course he was encouraged by 'applauding' females.
He tested his 'Shaggy Fans’ in lead up to a song called ‘Carolina’ which he describes as a “classic’.
Shaggy included his fellow dancehall artiste Ravon in his segment and the duo did past popular songs like ‘It Wasn’t Me’, ‘In the Summertime’ and ‘Angel’.
Konshens’ followed with a performance which ran for a little over one hour. He was backed by his SubKonshus Band.
As expected many females got low with the ‘bruk out’ dance movements when Konshens did his popular ‘Gal A Bubble’ song.
For his ‘Stop Sign’ Konshens did a clean version with the lyrics “Wine inna di road.’
No doubt many were looking to hear the raw stuff!
By the end of Konshens’ performance he was shirtless! And this was no problem for the infatuated ladies.
Two members of Konshens' entourage gave out posters and CDs during his performance.
He belted out songs like 'Name Stink A Road’ ‘Good Girl Gone Bad', ‘I’m Coming’ and one of his most recent hits ‘Do Sumn’ which hyped the audience!
