The much anticipated concert by the Jamaican reggae artist Romain Virgo went down on Saturday night at the KICC grounds in Nairobi. The show dubbed Romain Virgo Live was meant to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of Shashamane International a recording and promotion label that houses a good number of reggae artists across the globe.
This was the first time for Romain Virgo to perform in Kenya and his second show in African after thrilling reggae fans on the 17th of September in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.
Branded as Love Doctor, Romain Virgo is one of the biggest reggae and dancehall artist in Kingston Jamaica. Kenya welcomed him with open arms and the day before the concert he toured different tourism attraction sites.
Reggae lovers started to stream into the venue of the event at 7pm. This was an opportunity for Reggae fans to have a one on one connection with the Rastafarians who were present at the concert.
The show was curtain raised by a number of Kenyan artists among them; Vivian Kenya, Gospel artist J-Fam, Fidempa and Hart the Band who prepared the stage for the main act of the night Romain Virgo.
The unit band that’s Romain Virgo official band carried the night with their extra ordinary skills when it comes to handling their instruments. The band kept Romain Virgo on track with their awesome skills making him perform for more than three hours nonstop and the fans left satisfied.
What stood out during the concert from the curtain raisers to Romain Virgo the main performer of the Night;
- Vivian Kenya on stage
As mentioned earlier Vivian Kenya was the only queen on the list of Curtain Raisers in this year’s Shashamane 32 anniversary celebration. The beautiful and sexy Vivian kicked off her performance with her breakthrough song My Dream that featured Jaguar. Vivian’s band was also on point as they managed to induce the reggae feeling in all her songs bearing in mind that it was a Rastafarians affair.
Vivian performed all her songs – Woman in Love, Same Girl, Teren Teren and her new tune Sua sua.
- Hart the Band
Hart the Band who started off their musical journey as spoken word artists stole the show with their unique moves and ability to utilize the stage fully. If it was not the celebration of Shashamane anniversary, Hart the band performance would have been enough to take care of the night’s entertainment. They were on fire.
Just like Reggae music, Hart the band were a true representation of the Ghetto life and they are proving to the world that no matter where you come from you can still go far with hard work and determination.
They performed all their songs, starting with Love phobic, Nikikutazama, Baby Love, Cool Down before they ended their performance with Uliza Kiatu a song that became an anthem for the Hustlers while introducing them to world.
- Romain Virgo
At 2 am, Romain Virgo got on stage and wooed the crowd with some fantastic love songs. This was my favorite part of the night. The way reggae fans had ditched their blankets to battle with the Nairobi cold, Romain Virgo did not disappoint at all and he was worth the wait.
Romain performed many of his popular hits among them; Soul provider, Stay with me, Love Doctor, Wanna Go Home, Fade Away, We No Worry about them and This is Love among other songs.
- Romain Virgo band; The Unit
Before he could wrap up his performance, Romain Virgo took 30 minutes to introduce his official band the Unit. The 5-member band consisting of two guitarists, one drummer, a pianist and one saxophone player dominated the night out of their ability to handle instruments. The band’s playing was on point aiding Romain Virgo lyrics to flow nicely. The Unit is one of the biggest Reggae band in Jamaica.
Cashmere International was started by Papa Bingi a reggae artist back in 1984 and brings together Rev Dida, the late Pupa Davis, Oga Sura Mbaya, Daddy Chosh, Youthman Terry, and Ras Ken.
Jamaican reggae musicians seem to be capitalizing on the huge reggae fan base in Kenya as quite a number of Jamaican artists have performed here in recent years. Those who have performed in Kenya include, Konshen, Chronics, Taurus Riley, Alkaline, Alaine, and Morgan Heritage.
On November 5threggae lovers will have another chance to party and dance the night away as Wailing Souls from Jamaica will be performing at KICC.
Pictures courtesy of Moses Mwangi.
