Christopher Ellis wakes up early crowd at Reggae Sumfest Night Two
Published:Sunday | July 21, 2024 | 1:13 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Reggae Sumfest Night Two, which got off to a comfortable start, is currently in full swing at Catherine Hall in Montego Bay.
Among the early artistes to perform on stage were JayEDGE, Iyunda, Christian 'Yung Lion' Low Hoy, and Christopher Ellis, who connected solidly with the still growing crowd and had those on the livestream commending him for "waking up" the people.
At 9:59 p.m. Ellis took to centrestage with a few favourites from his legendary father Alton Ellis' catalogue and two songs of his own and energised the early patrons at the reggae festival.
Backed by Warrior Love band, the young Ellis chose to open with Willow Tree and immediately had the crowd singing: " They say that once the tear has fallen. The willow cries eternally. Cry not for me, my willow tree. Don't shed your tears eternally."
Naturally, Ellis had to choose the Godfather of Rocksteady's arguably biggest hit, Rocksteady, on which he did an excellent job and was even compared to Romain Virgo.
It was another sing-along interspersed with the sounds of vuvuzela as they united for " Better get ready...Come do rock steady, eh. You got to do this new dance, hope you are ready. You got to do it just like uncle Freddy."
"My father wrote this song in 1967," Ellis informed as he pulled out another big hit from Alton's catalogue – I'm Still in Love With You.
He then closed with two of his songs, Still go a Dance and Rub A Dub.
Over on the YouTube livestream, fans — including some who admitted that they were hearing Christopher Ellis for the first time — released a barrage of fire emojis in endorsement of his talent.
Prior to Ellis, Westrock with his particular brand of country reggae and his usual cowboy attire did his best to entertain. From 9:42 p.m. to 9:58 p.m., Wesrock reeled off songs from his growing catalogue.
Unfortunately, over on YouTube, the critics were there for it, and they were loud and harsh, and sometimes quite humorous. "Feel seh a Joe [Bogdanovich] a disguise himself," one 'patron' wrote, while others called it out as a karaoke segment or an album launch. However, Wesrock's Believe in Yourself song seemed to hit a mark.
The Rastafarian Yung Lion was an unknown entity, but one enterprising person on YouTube, in response to the many people asking "Who is this?" found his bio and dropped it in the chat.
The Staten Island-born Yung Lion launched his career in 2019 with a blend of dancehall, '90s reggae, and R&B, "drawing inspiration from his Caribbean roots and the legendary Marley family, who have significantly influenced his style and messaging".On stage, he shouted out the Marleys as he performed and took time to recognise members of his family who were in Jamaica to support him.
JayEDGE The Jamaican Singer, whose goal is to "fuse Reggae and pop into a sound the world has never experienced" made good use of his five minutes on stage while the crowd listened. JayEDGE didn't mention it, but he should be congratulated because last Saturday night, Fi Mi Island Home, the song which he produced for his mother, Sister Novlette, placed third in the Jamaica Festival song Competition.
The chanter, Iyunda, was overloaded with 'I's' and brought the dub poet vibes with his theme of truths and rights mixed with word, sound and power, and talk of "recycle slavery".