Entertainment

Lady Saw's birthday bash,

By GERMAINE SMITH, Staff Reporter

Lady Saw - FILE

AT 36, LADY Saw can count her blessings in the music arena.

In the fickle dancehall world, where she has made both enemies and friends, the friends showed their support for her with a whopping turnout for her birthday party on Sunday night.

Last year, she took it inside the Asylum Nightclub in St. Andrew, but this time she took it to the beach. A sea of supporters turned up to celebrate with her, packing into every inch of the Reggae Beach, just outside of Ocho Rios in St Ann.

The boos and claps for the show were not many, but they were all concentrated towards the early segments. They reserved it for, and gave it to acts like LA Lewis, Christus, Hot Ice among others after their first few syllables. Those aside, however, they tolerated everyone else.

Willie Culture, Zebra soundalike Polka Dot, Emporer, Exhale from the Shocking Vibes camp, Little Hero, and Mr Pepper all got heated responses for their short sets. Based on the scream levels, Little Hero and Pepper seem set to capture a place in dancehall.

Voisemail hit the stage with a dancing frenzy, triple teaming the crowd with their moves and dancing hits. At times, however, they became breathless during their fitness expo, but the audience loved them. Red Rat hit his mark well, but not until he did old favourites like Shelly Ann and Dwayne.

QQ, the 10-year-old rising star, was a no brainer crowd favourite for his entire set. He hit the mark the minute his name was called for entrance to the stage, and could barely finish his lines because of the response. When he was allowed to finish, you could hardly hear him above the passionate roar.

Giant reception

Toots Hibbert and Natural Black also represented themselves well in their short appearances, and warmed the crowd up for the heated appearance of Spice, who was dressed from head to slippers in white.

Spice worked well, but was short. Macka Diamond got a giant reception following this, and welcomed Lady G to share the spotlight with her. Ghost was on next, and between his various cover versions, provided a huge number of stage antics for the eyes.

Junior Kelly and Lutan Fyah rocked with fiery passion as well. Though they were quick, they warmed the audience even more, preparing them for the birthday girl.

Lady Saw wore black, but there was no mourning about her. Wearing a few extra pounds, she steered clear of her promised special announcement, but gave a lively set nonetheless.

On the juggling side of things, deejay Sunshine represented herself well with the one turntable she was given to work with. Between her emcee duties, dancing, and overall entertainment, she gave her brand of 'light' to the show.

The night's selecting hero however was Firelinks. The fireman scorched the venue with timely wisecracks to accompany his burning tunes. From Sizzla to Fifty Cent, he played it for the forwards. As he left, while he was dripping with sweat, trhe crowd was dripping for more.