BASSETERRE, St. Kitts –“He could be anywhere in the world, but he has chosen to come to St. Kitts,” says Executive Member of the St. Kitts Music Festival, Saju N’galla on the recently announced first act for this year’s Festival – Damian Jr. Gong Marley.
“Damian Marley is the type of artist, the Music Festival goes after, because they have that worldwide appeal that will bring people to the island,” said N’galla who is in charge of Marketing on the Committee and is also the Marketing, Communications and Support Manager at the St. Kitts Tourism Authority in the ministry that is responsible for the Festival.
When told that Marley had been a request by many for several years now, and asked what took the Committee so long to bring the youngest son of the legendary reggae singer Bob Marley, he said that everything comes with time.
“Everything has its own time; he is an artiste that is in demand. The fact that we’re able to not only negotiate a contract he would agree to, but that he would want to perform in St. Kitts is significant because he is an artiste that can go anywhere in the world. If you look at his Facebook fan page you’ll see people from Switzerland, Paris, all over Europe and Africa are demanding that he goes there, but he chose us,” he said.
The announcement was made on Tuesday, March 6, via the St. Kitts Music Festival Fan Page, that Damian Jr. Gong Marley, will be gracing the stage at the annual St. Kitts Music Festival.
The announcement was met with an outpour of positive feedback from fans of the page that “finally the Festival had got it right”.N’galla also said that they already have a lineup that they are eager to release to the public but cannot do so until they have already finalized contracts and dealt with the exchange of monies. He is hoping that they will be able to make some more announcements next week.
According to SKNVibes, some of the artists the Festival is hoping to showcase a former member of a boy group who pursued a solo career, another artist who has a reality show and a group often referred to as the ‘royal family of reggae’.
This media also learned that American Rapper Nas, who has performed at the Festival in the past and did ‘Distant Relatives’ a collaborative album with Damian Marley and Latin singer and rapper, Pitbull ,are also possible acts for the Festival.
“I cannot speak on who’s coming until contracts have been finalized but we always look for artistes that have the world wide appeal and can bring people in, while appealing to the young and the old
“This is our Sweet 16 edition, so we’re going to go all out in bringing the current and best, to ensure we have the best Festival,” said N’galla.
SOURCE: SKN Vibes
