Review, Photos & Video: Bermuda Salute Concert

August 31, 2015

[Written by Mikaela Ian Pearman]

What do you get when you take Soca’s royal couple, the Gully God and a Country Man from Jamaica? The answer is simple – Bermuda Salute.

Saturday night [Aug 29] saw hundreds of revellers fill Tiger Bay in St. George’s for the highly anticipated annual Bermuda Salute concert. This year, the line-up was Bunji Garlin and Fay-Ann Lyons, Mavado and Gully Bop. It was to be a show that enticed both Dancehall and Soca lovers alike.

In theory, it sounds easy but in reality, combining the two genres of music to appease the crowd was more difficult than I imagined.

I arrived at Tiger Bay around 10:30pm and was greeted by DJ Rusty G warming up the crowd with soca music. DJ iBreeze of King Jyrus followed with reggae tunes until MC Nadanja took the stage to introduce Gully Bop, Jamaican Dancehall’s newest sensation.

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The 50-year-old came to the stage and performed ‘Every Gal’, ‘Gully Wine’, ‘My God Dem Nuh Bad Like Me’ and more. He also freestyled a bit, adding in a few Bermuda lines and had the crowd entertained during his set. Gully Bop also brought Bermudian artist Imari to the stage and they performed their song ‘Drop Mi’.

Gully God Mavado, who I thought should’ve been the headliner for the show, came to the stage a few minutes after Gully Bop’s performance. Anyone who’s ever been to a Mavado show knows he has great energy and tons of hits to match it.

As a big Mavado fan, I was in my element watching him perform ‘Caribbean Girls’, ‘Delilah’, ‘One by One’, ‘Settle Down’, ‘Weh Dem A Do’, ‘Mad Ova’, ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Final Destination’ and countless more hits.

Mavado had the crowd’s attention from the time he got on stage until he left. He performed an excellent show and set the bar high for Fay-Ann and Bunji.

Imari Performs At Bermuda Salute

Soca’s royal couple and their band were the next to perform. Fay-Ann came out to her 2015 hit ‘Raze’ to much applause from the crowd. Her husband came on a few minutes later and they performed together, as back-up for each other and then alternated performing their individual hits.

Bunji, the self-professed Viking of Soca was the better out of the pair, especially when he freestyled. Songs included ‘Differentology’, ‘Carnival Tabanca’, ‘Truck On D Road’, ‘So and So’ and ‘It’s A Carnival’.

Fay-Ann performed many of her songs including ‘Heavy T Bumpa’, ‘Party’, ‘Breakaway’ and more. While both Fay-Ann and Bunji had energy, their band pretty much stood there and played their instruments and weren’t really into the performance.

Overall, this wasn’t my favourite show in Bermuda as the vibes just weren’t there. In my opinion, the flow of the show was a bit off and that’s probably why it didn’t live up to its potential. Nevertheless, it was a good night out and I was entertained.

Photos by Glenn Tucker, click to enlarge:

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Comments (10)

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  1. Carrot Top says:

    Looked like lots of fun. Hats off to the organizers.

  2. Gabbs says:

    This show was a flop and a waste of my money. I paid $135.00 for VIP which I thought was a waste. Mavado was not good at all, going through his songs like he was doing a 100 meter dash,for the most part the crowd with singing the songs for him. The sad part was he didn’t have a band backing him up at all, singing from a computer. The liquor section in VIP was terrible with only certain rums being sold…The soca was okay, not bad, the only thing was they kept repeating themselves over and over. The show in my opinion was a total flop and waste of money…Never Again.

    • BobsYourUncle says:

      “The soca was okay, not bad, the only thing was they kept repeating themselves over and over.”

      For the record, I’ve never heard any soca that wasn’t extremely repetitive

    • Ameboa says:

      The Soca was more a flop then the reggae side of it. When Mavado and Gully left so did more then half the crowd

  3. PTO says:

    Totallly wack……

  4. Bermybouy says:

    Hope they now go out and remove all of the banners plastered on the roadside!!!

  5. watchfuleyes says:

    Gabbs that is the truth… big failure as far as Mavado is concerned, he sounded terrible, and did not sing one song all the way through, stopping and shouting out BERMUDA will not cut it. One boring show…

  6. ShowReady says:

    I dont understand!?!! A big artist like Mavado, you end the show with soca…….THAT WAS SHOCKING, after Mavado performed I left and went party else where. mostly everyone in the age of 23- 30 went Front Street after Mavado’s performace. I paid 135 for VIP that was a waste of my time. To me the vibe was killed from the soca, I believe it was more of a reggage crowd, even the soca artist said it on stage…..I CANT RATE THE PROMOTOR for that line up, sorry!!!

  7. watchfuleyes says:

    Older folk know what time it is now the young people have to get smart and stop letting the promoters and artists come down here and put on half way show charging all this money.stop the madness Bermuda and learn what constitutes as VIP treatment! Greedy