A wonderful celebration of Bermuda’s talent

Some of Bermuda’s most popular singers took to the stage at an action packed night of entertainment on Saturday.

Some 13 of HOTT 1075’s most played local artists were invited to perform together at the Ruth Seaton James Centre.

Twenty-six-year-old gospel singer Tricray Astwood stole the show commanding the stage with a vigour beyond his years. When he launched in to “Take me to the King” it felt like the roof was going to come off — the audience members were up on their feet, throwing their arms up in the air and in full praise mode. As a full-time
Worship Pastor Tricray is no stranger to rousing a crowd and Saturday was no exception.

Another of the audience’s favourite performances was My Marriage Is Over by Lavette Philip-Fuentes about her own experience. The song, written and performed by Lavette, was an ode to Whitney Houston. The crowd went wild giving her a standing ovation. 

One of the more surprising performances came from a local artist ‘Sir Dudley’ whose influences, it was announced by the hosts, include down and dirty dancehall artists such as Beenie Man and Mr Vegas. So when a small-framed, well-heeled white boy took to the stage we didn’t quite know what to expect. He launched into an epic song with all the swagger of a major dancehall anthem and the audience were, at the same time, perplexed and blown away. He proved to be quite a genuine talent and, after laughing for a while, the audience realized this was the real deal.

One of Bermuda’s top hip hop artists Imari  ‘Golden’ Wade always gives a pretty polished show. It was a busy weekend for her she was performing the night before at the Bermuda National Gallery’s Music In Art event. The Hip Hop Challenge winner  has an effortless flow and just exudes coolness on stage. 

Former Bermuda Idol Laritta Adderley didn’t give it her all on the night, she had to tell the sound technician to ‘pull up’ (start the song over) three times before getting in the flow. She has sung multiple times at The Apollo so has had more experience than most on the stage that
evening. She did go some way to making up for it with her powerful voice. 

One hilarious moment came when the talented Ramon Clarke, son of Michael Clarke, finished singing his hit That Thing You Have (which is repeated many times throughout the song). Bootisie enquired: “Great song but what is that thing she has and… who is she?” at which point an older lady in the crowd stood bolt upright and shouted: “Me!” Everyone just fell about laughing — it was a classic moment.

Bootsie and Ninja Cutty make a good comedy act bouncing jokes off each other and making each other giggle — it’s a shame they have to work different shifts hosting HOTT 1075 programmes. 

It doesn’t matter how many times you see it —Bootsie’s drunk person impression will crack you up — the comedy is on a par with the great Bill Cosby.

Sadly, there were lots of technical hiccups throughout the night — annoying to say the least. Latroya Darrell had to perform her new song Ready For You a cappella as her music cut out. Then right after her, E-Levelz mic cut out and he ended up telling the technician to ‘sort it out’.

The show was also half an hour late to start as the car park had been overbooked. The real downer was that everyone had to leave the venue at 11pm so poor Bootsie in particular, didn’t get to tell as many funny stories as he would have liked to.

That aside it was a fun evening and great to see Bermuda’s talent come together and be celebrated.