Alkaline Starts ‘Baderation’ Set In Guyana With Somber ‘Gone Away’
A sea of phone lights and a solemn rendition of Gone Away marked Alkaline’s opening set at ‘Baderation’ – Guyana’s Dancehall mega-concert on Saturday (May 27), as the star seemingly paid tribute to the 19 students killed in a dorm fire in the country last Sunday, May 21.
According to reports, 18 girls, along with a five-year-old boy, were trapped in a dormitory at the Mahdia Secondary School, after another student, 14, who was upset that school officials confiscated her phone, set the structure ablaze. It is understood that she initially set fire to an area in the dorm’s shared bathroom space. The fire quickly razed the wood, concrete and grilled structure – which was closed to prevent the girls from sneaking out. Unfortunately, that made escaping the blaze difficult.
Gone Away was one of Alkaline’s early hits, released in 2013 on Good Good Prodcutions’ Britjam Soul riddim.
His subtle recognition of the national tragedy was a moving moment for the crowd, which quickly exploded from solemn to sensual to as the Man Himself segued into a performance of One More Time.
In a set that remained energy-packed from start to finish – with the crowd echoing nearly all of the songs verbatim, the Vendetta Boss commanded the Guyana National Stadium with a performance replete with hits.
Reeling off tracks like Formula, Champion Boy, ATM, After All, Spoil You, Boss, Move Mountains and Extra Lesson, Alkaline held the crowd’s attention through to the end of his set.
In one instance on stage, while performing Move Mountains, he appeared to be overcome with emotion.
As the song’s backing track played, the 29-year-old moved closer to the crowd, standing on a ledge that separated the main stage from patrons at front. As he stood, listening to the crowd making its way through the hit song, he removes the shades he had been wearing for the entire performance up to that point, and appeared to wipe tears before putting them back on.
The Vendetta Boss closed his roughly 30-minute-set with My Life in yet another moving moment of the crowd serenading him with his own song.
This year’s iteration of the show was one without incident.
Last year, Skeng’s headlining performance was marred with gunshots and chaos as he performed his hit song Protocol. Subsequently, a directive was issued by Guyana’s Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn barring the London deejay and any other Dancehall artists, whose lyrical content promoted violence, from performing publicly in the country.
Given the crowd’s response to Alkaline’s performance, Kerwin Bollers, Director of Hits and Jams – organizers of the Baderation concert, accomplished his mission to deliver an excellent experience for patrons at the Genesis Independence Weekend. Prior to the concert, he had explained that: “Baderation is all about dancehall music. So, when the team and I were brainstorming for the headline act, we wanted to have an artiste who hadn’t performed in Guyana for a while but also had an impressive catalogue.”
For Bollers and his team, “Alkaline ticked all those boxes,” and they were confident the patrons would “get their money’s worth at the end of the night.”
Social media responses seem to agree with the executives, as users had nothing but praise for Alkaline’s performance.
According to one person, “Alka was emotional there!! That man was feeling so proud of how far he came and when us as fans sing the lyrics he wrote back to him… yeah that’s where the emotions come in!! That man will forever be a LEGEND”.
Another comment read: “Alkaline put on a stellar performance his use of the stage plus how he interact with the fans and not to mention his hits after hits 10/10 I love the way my artist evolved he’s a mega star so proud to be a Vendetta fan 🎭🖖🏾🎭🖖🏾🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥”.
Commenting on the absence of an entourage – usually a staple of Dancehall artists, another fan fan noted: “Me love how the youth keep the stage clean, no bag a waste man😂, do u thing Vetta, ur the boss ❤ the vibes maaaaaaad.”
Dancehall man of the moment, Byron Messia and E-Syde Queen, Jada Kingdom, also performed at the concert, each delivering sets worthy of their selection to the highly anticipated event’s lineup – which also featured local Dancehall acts.
Messia performed his hit song Talibans to raucous cheer from the crowd, while Jada – who is also name-dropped in Messia’s Talibans, swayed the hundreds of patrons with her with a mix of high-intensity stints and her characteristic mellow renditions.
Shuffling through hits like GPP, Same Way, Heavy and Win, among others, Kingdom showed off her improved stage and performance chops, and kept the crowd engaged throughout her set. Expertly working the crowd, the 24-year-old delivered on nearly every base there is to on stage – from eye-popping twerks and bantering with her fans, to, at points, extended conversations with those closest to the stage.
She demonstrated her instincts as a performer, as the inevitable lull in the crowd’s energy between transitions were seamlessly maneuvered for a night that proved just as memorable as the Heavy singer’s overall performance.
