‘Koffee Lit Up Stage, Left Crowd Wanting More’
[Written by Mikaela Ian Pearman]
After covering Bermuda’s entertainment scene for over a decade, it’s rare that I’m impressed by a new artist. Most are still struggling to find their way and working on perfecting their stage presence. It usually take a while before they really have it down.
On Saturday night, I had the pleasure of watching new reggae sensation Koffee perform for the first time in Bermuda. She was on the lineup for Kaya Fest in Miami in April, but I got to the event too late to see her. Thankfully, I was given another opportunity.
Koffee lit up the stage at the National Sports Centre over the weekend and left the crowd wanting much more.
Having participated in school visits and a panel discussion the day before, I was interested to see how she would perform. She had great stage presence during the panel and did not disappoint on stage during her set.
Coming out to her first single Burning, Koffee had the whole crowd singing during her 50 minute set. Backed by her Raggamuffin band, she breezed through songs like Raggamuffin and Rapture before performing a new song I didn’t catch the name of.
But it was when the beat started for her hit song Toast that the crowd went into overdrive.
Before she started, Koffee told the crowd to grab a photo or video or her now because she was about to disappear. And with that, she jumped down in front of the VIP barricade and walked the length of the crowd while singing, shaking hands and smiling for photos. I haven’t seen an artist do that in a long time and the audience loved it.
Koffee came back to the stage and performed Toast again in its entirety and killed it. She is world class already at just 19. I can’t wait to see what she does next.
As great as Koffee was, there was a whole lineup before she performed including Arijahknow Live Wires performing his hit songs More and More and Gombey Warrior with a Gombey troupe. Soleil Laurent, a rock/soul artist from New York performed a few of her songs as she rocked out on the electric guitar.
BLAC performed a song with Bermuda Squad dancers, which was a tribute to Taylor Made who was fatally shot last year.
Bermuda Idol winner Chelsea McNorton performed a medley of lovers rock reggae songs. And Mugzy D Dancer performed before I got there so I missed him unfortunately.
The MC for the night was Ninja Curry and DJs Jugglin J and Rusty G were on hand to entertain the crowd.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Rising Inferno. It was great to see promoters organize a show where young people could come out and enjoy themselves in a safe, age appropriate environment. I can’t wait til the next one!
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