Jamaican singer Romain Virgo staged a fiery performance at his debut performance in Africa at the Glamis Arena on Saturday evening.
Virgo was following in the footsteps of his fellow countrymen, Busy Signal and Chris Martin, who pulled huge crowds at the outdoor venue which has become a favourite hunting ground for Jamaican artists in the past year.
Though the numbers of those in attendance this time around weren’t as huge (with just close to 3000 as opposed to over 10 000 in the case of aforementioned artists), the young lad’s performance was loaded with well-orchestrated musical arrangements and complemented by sizzling vocals.
The synergy amongst the five-member band was just phenomenal, they were flawless in their transitions from one track to the other and the jacks they incorporated in their just over two hour long set were just dazzling.
Similar to Chris Martin, Virgo’s vocal range was exceptional. He proved that his vocal timber is very solid by managing to maintain his pitch and not go out of key when he scaled and dropped some sophisticated adlibs.
Moving on to other performers on the night, Ammara and Chengeto Brown did well, sampling their new dancehall track which was well received by the crowd. Ammara then dropped her current chart topping track ‘Mukoko’ sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Seh Calaz and Hwindi President also did well though Chibaba, Soul Jah Love was the outstanding one amongst the local dancehall acts who performed on the night with a set that was spiced up with some tight choreography.
Sadly for Dobba Don, the young chanter failed to perform due to poor planning on the organisers side, Chipaz Promotions and Black Opal Face of Zimbabwe.
Chipaz Promotions were back to their dirty business of not tagging attendees making it difficult for one to freely move in and out of the venue as they would have to pay again to be readmitted.
Another area of concern for the organisers on the night was that of power cuts.
Three times the power went out on stage, fortunately the outages were not too long and most of the performers were not affected save for Fungisai and Hwindi President.
Sound was also not consistent throughout the event. The microphones were muffled for most of the performances and Romain’s set was marred by irritating feedback.
Jah Prayzah capped off the night with an average act as the ‘Eriza’ hit maker was looking drained–a testament to the fact that he needs to rest. Ever since returning from his successful maiden tour of the USA and Canada the musician has been on the road performing all over the country and it seems fatigue is catching up with him.
