Review, Photos & Video: Bermuda Salute Concert

[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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