Cross country Invasion starts strong downtown

The RJR Cross Country Invasion got off to a blazing start at the launch event, held at the St William Grant Park, downtown Kingston, on Friday morning.

Hosts Markland 'Action' Edwards, Wesley 'Burgerman' Burger, and Yanique 'The Curvy Diva' Barrett kept the large crowd entertained in the moments leading up to the main event. They issued several giveaway items including, water bottles, T-shirts, and hats to members of the audience. However, the item patrons craved most was the RJR 2016 calendar. The calendar is highly anticipated each year as persons look forward to seeing some of their most loved media personalities featured in the work.

Aside from the giveaways, persons at the park were treated to a memorable show as several artistes turned up to provide the morning's entertainment. The line-up included Kiprich, Devin Di Dakta, Wayne Wonder, and Kevin Downswell.

Downswell was among the first set of entertainers to perform and got the audience revved up for the other acts. He thrilled with songs such as Stronger and If It's Not You before making way for Devin Di Dakta.

The young entertainer showed no signs of distress following last week's well-publicised beating incident as he delivered a crowd-pleasing performance. Delivering songs such as Rrribangbidengdeng and Run Mi Down, the 2015 Magnum King of the Dancehall had the audience's attention glued to the stage. He made way for acts such as Kiprich and Chino, who also delivered good

performances.

Although there were many entertainers at the launch, none got a bigger response than reggae artiste Nesbeth. The singer has one of the hottest songs on the airwaves currently, so when the words of My Dream spewed from his lips, to say Nesbeth was well received by the audience would be an understatement. Screams and shouts greeted Nesbeth, who sang a few lines of one of his older songs, but it was clear what the people wanted to hear and he gave them what they asked for.

Nesbeth led the audience as they sang My Dream word for word. The audience loved the song so much that the entertainer had to 'pull it up', restarting the song several times before making his exit.

International act Sean Kingston was next to grace the stage, and he, too, put on a good set. When Kingston performed his breakout hit Beautiful Girls it seemed as if it had just been made popular as the audience sang along to every lyric. His most recent single, One Away, was also well received.

He made way for Beenie Man, who served as the morning's closing act. The King of the Dancehall was not to be denied his fair share of the crowd's love as he received huge approval for every song he delivered. His awkward dancing onstage seemed to hit the right note with the audience as they cheered him along with every move. Rum and Red Bull, Million Gyal, Run Road, Romie, and Let's Go were some of the songs Beenie Man delivered.