Damian Marley Shines, Popcaan Disappoints In St.Kitts

The “Sweet 16th” edition of the Annual St. Kitts Music Festival concluded on Saturday (June 30) to mixed reviews.

The Festival kicked off Thursday (June 28) with the usual Soca night featuring Machel Montano and Team HD, Spectrum Band, Grandmasters band, Shakki Starfire, Ali Dee, Nicha B and Edwin Yearwood and Krosfyah.

According to feedback the night belonged to Machel Montano whose energetic performance closed the show. Fans agreed that he earned his paycheck with a two-hour long performance and mixing in local hits into his act.

Friday night’s reviews were more divided with some patrons saying certain acts ruined the entire show and another cross section of patrons saying two of the acts saved the Reggae/Dancehall night.

Friday’s line up saw performances by Lovindeer, Courtney Pine, Eric Donaldson, I-Octane, Popcaan, Morgan Heritage and Damian “Jr Gong” Marley.

Fans were none too pleased with Popcaan’s sporadic and disjointed performance. The Jamaican artiste seemed unable to render his hit songs with any success in terms of crowd response and his constant “pull ups” after a few lines of each song did not go over well with the massive audience either. His repeated catch sound of “Yeeeoooow!” was the butt of many jokes the following day for those who said he sounded like a “hungry cat” instead of an artiste with chart-topping songs.

The only negative critique of Morgan Heritage’s superb performance was that it was too short for such a huge act.

Damian Marley’s first appearance on the St. Kitts Music Festival was dubbed as one of the best performances not only for Friday night or this year’s event, but the best in the show’s recent history.

“Jr Gong was fantastic! He demonstrated how an artiste should perform when they are paid a lot of money. He didn’t waste time chatting and stopping and starting every minute. He came to sing his songs and that’s what he did. I liked the way he injected St. Kitts into the lyrics of his hit songs which made them more relevant to the local fans. He was definitely worth my money,” one patron told the St. Kitts media.