Staff writer Eunice Nisbett
What organizers promoted as one of the best lineups since the inception of the St. Kitts Music Festival, left patrons with mixed reviews as the Sweet 16 hosting of the event climaxed early Sunday morning.
Though the third and final night got off to a good start on Saturday, with a performance by the Liamuiga Project, a jazz group lead by locally born Bruce Skerritt; the night took a turn for the worst when veteran Roberta Flack took to the stage.
Patrons rushed to the stage welcoming her presence,
Roberta Flack
but were soon left with a bitter taste in their mouths after the acclaimed singer barely sang any of her songs, simply saying the lyrics to her hits ‘Lover’s Night’, ‘Closer I Get To You’ and ‘Killing Me Softly’ leaving her backup singers to take the lead and hoping that the crowd would sing along. Midway through the performance Flack even stopped to chastise patrons for taking photos and videos of her on stage.
Next to take the stage was the Grammy Award winning songstress, Toni Braxton. The sultry singer, backed by two of her sisters, brought the crowd back to high spirits with songs like ‘Just another Sad Love Song,’ ‘Love shoulda Brought You Home’ and ‘Unbreak my Heart’ but the good feeling was short lived, as rain poured down forcing patrons to take cover where they could.
Hardcore fans suffered in the onslaught of rain, singing along to every song; others however were not so lucky, not being able to hear the singer after technical difficulties left speakers on the left side of the stage out of order.
Toni Braxton
Braxton did not lose focus or tempo despite her performance being rained out, thanking fans for standing out in the rain for her. At the end of her performance patrons had had enough though, and many left the park, clothes clinging close to their bodies and shoes in hand.
Younger fans were not deterred by the punctuations of rain and waited for the newest member of Maybach Music, Omarion, to take the stage. Dancing on stage with the nation’s flag, he pumped the crowd up with one of his hit songs ‘Touch.’
What followed soon after was, however, a lackluster performance. Despite bringing a group of ladies on stage to dance to the Vegas’ hit ‘Bruk it down’ and ‘Drop de Soap’ by local band Small Axe, many patrons just stood around in the park hoping that the former member of multi-platinum boy band B2K would put more energy into his performance. Toni Braxton’s Unbreak my heart:
The 27-year-old brought his performance to close belting out ‘Speeding’ a hit requested by the crowd before the artiste left the stage. CaribDirect spoke to patrons following the night’s performances many of whom recalled the 2004 performance of the then 34-year-old RnB singer/dancer, Ginuwine and the
Omarion
2006 performance of a 17-year-old Chris Brown; these patrons felt that the 2012 performances were not up to par. Others however were enthralled by Omarion’s dancing, he even sent the crowd into an uproar after he jumped on to a female’s back during a dance between the two.
With all the events for the festival wrapped up, some patrons would say it was a huge success rain and all; others, not so much.
