Shaggy Pleased With Outcome, Despite Issues With Lauryn Hill

Dancehall mega star, Orville Burrell, more popularly known as Shaggy, believes his charity event, Shaggy and Friends resulted in success despite a few problems involving one of the show’s headline acts.

The third edition of Shaggy and Friends took place this past Saturday on the lawns of Jamaica House in Kingston. The show included several strong performances from local and overseas acts such as Eve, Deniece Williams, Maxi Priest, Beres Hammond and Romain Virgo, amongst several others. Shaggy also performed at various intervals alongside Tarrus Riley, Tessanne Chin and others.

However, former Grammy-winning singer/rapper, Lauryn Hill, who closed out the show, drew mixed reactions from what was regarded as the show’s largest crowd to date. A drawn out band change caused unrest amongst fans that waited an hour to see the former Fugees starlet grace the stage. Once she did arrive on stage, Hill expressed her dissatisfaction with the stage setup and continually restarted tracks during the first half of her set.

In a radio interview on Monday, Shaggy claimed that he wasn’t surprised by what took place during Hill’s set; intimating that prior to the show, he believed Hill would pose problems for show organizers.
“We had a problem and a down part with the Lauryn Hill situation but to be honest with you, I was expecting it and that’s why I did a lot of the surprises (Beres Hammond, Stephen Marley and Damian Marley),” he said.

“I wanted the audience to feel that even before Lauryn Hill comes on, whether she does come on and do well or not do well, I wanted them to feel like they had gotten their money’s worth and they were fully entertained.” 

Only a few thousand fans and media organizations stuck around for the duration of Hill’s performance which included renditions of classics such as Killing Me Softly, Everything Is Everything and Doo Wop (That Thing) amongst several others.

Otherwise, Shaggy expressed his pleasure with the show’s organization and representation of the Shaggy and Friends brand. As for how much money the show raised, Shaggy explained that they’re still tallying their revenues and expenses and will release the final figures in the forthcoming days.

Proceeds from this year’s Shaggy and Friends concert will go towards building a new cardiac unit for the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston. The previous two editions of the charity event rose in excess of JA$57 million for the hospital.