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Are You Ready for Mikey Spice? - Live in Kingston concert, album launch Sunday

Published:Friday | May 22, 2020 | 12:05 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Mikey Spice
Mikey Spice

Fans of singer Mikey Spice will be happy to know that he has seemingly ended his hiatus and is ready to make a statement in a huge way. The multi-instrumentalist and consummate performer has a defining, digital musical experience in store for fans, come Sunday, at an event which will double as a concert and an album launch. Dubbed Live In Kingston: Are You Ready?, the name incorporates both the performance and the album title.

It’s been six years since Mikey Spice dropped an album, and this will mark the second time in eight years that the artiste, who also has a base in Florida, is performing in Jamaica. And he is eagerly anticipating stepping on stage and sharing this project with his special people. “This album is called Are You Ready? and it’s going really good,” Mikey Spice shared with The Gleaner. “It wasn’t on the table for a while, actually, and when we did it, we didn’t even have a plan. We just went into the studio and all I know is that we had great musicians. And that always makes a difference. We just threw things around and they landed in some interesting corners,” he said.

Mikey Spice, whose real name is Michael Johnson, wears multiple hats on Are You Ready? – singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He explained that at the end of the project, which was recorded totally in Kingston, there were over 20 tracks, which was actually enough to do a double CD. However, the decision was taken to select 13 and save the others for the follow-up album. “This album is deliberate. It is a statement album. We wanted to present me, not anybody beside me or around me,” he said of Are You Ready?, which is a sort of return of Mikey Spice and doesn’t contain any collabs.

Among the songs are favourites such as his blockbuster hit, the sultry Practice What You Preach, Born Again and I Am ... I Said, the title track from his last album. Other tracks on the list are Everybody, Ali Ali Oh, Are You Ready?, For The Good Time, Just A Smile (Smiling Face), Never Get Me Down and New Day.

For Sunday’s virtual showcase, which gets under way at the Big Yard Studios in Kingston at 3 p.m. Jamaica time/4 p.m. EST and 9 p.m. UK, the Rastafarian Spice wants his fans to be “engaged with some soul-searching vibes that will help you translate your hopes into reality”.

Spice added that he is “excited at the opportunity that this creates and performing it in Kingston is even more thrilling. This is really for my fans who have stuck with me from the beginning until now. I hope they will be truly inspired.”

The 10-item online party is produced and directed by DreadanddreaD and will be broadcast on VP Records’ YouTube and Mikey Spice’s Vevo channel.

Are You Ready? is distributed by VPAL and is available on all digital platforms.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com