Akon concert successful, despite minor glitches

Sep 01, 2008 News

By Alex Wayne

The Akon live concert, hosted on Saturday night at the National Stadium, was pretty explosive but not without a few glitches.
The fact that the dancehall superstar did not appear on stage until almost 03:00 hrs agitated the already restless crowd of over twenty thousand, who protested and threw cups and beer cans onto the stage.
Heeding the calls of the Brutal Jammers singers for order, the crowd simmered a little, but renewed their revolt when, despite several promises by MC Stan Goveia, Akon still did not appear. While no explanation for the delay was given to the crowd, sources mentioned that the artiste was delayed because of flight problems.

Akon thrills thousands of excited fans at the National Stadium.

When Akon finally made it backstage, at around 02:30 hrs, and the crowd saw him on the large screens, they erupted into thunderous cheering and screaming.
Security personnel and the police had to elbow their way through the unruly crowd to get the star on stage, which was no easy feat as fans pushed and scrambled to touch or snap photos of the entertainer.
Added to that, Akon’s management party felt it wise that the singer should not grace the stage unless all persons were removed from the structure. While media representatives tried to explain to organizers that they needed to remain there to take photos, television personality DJ Rawle, using the microphone, ordered Kaieteur News and NCN to “get off the stage!”
This request apparently angered some media representatives, who left the venue promptly after.
Our entertainment reporter Alex Wayne was roughly pushed and almost dragged from the stage by burly security personnel as he attempted to snap a photograph of Akon in action.
Apart from that, the local performances really kept the audience hyped and entertained during the hours they awaited Akon’s appearance.
At around 22:00 hrs, Brutal Jammers Band, as usual, set a reverberating atmosphere as they paved the way for Star Guyana Finalist, ‘Mystic,’ who executed a beautiful rendition of his hit single, ‘Better Days Will Come’.

A section of the mammoth festive crowd at the National Stadium.

Next to come was Sophia resident singer ‘Illaman,’ who somehow failed to find favour with the crowd, some of whom complained of him screaming into the microphones.
However, Clinton ‘Passion’ Adolphus, who was the next act, exhibited his usual explosive demeanour, belting out ‘Wine it Up’, ‘Come Out to Party’ and several other hot tunes that set the crowd in readiness of what was to follow.
Though it was more of a soca type dancehall atmosphere, Gialiani was well applauded for his hip-hop pieces, ‘Watch yuh Self’ and ‘Put yuh Hands Up’.
With the entrance of Brutal Tracks’ ‘Jory,’ the crowd absolutely screamed in delight at his high-energy execution of ‘Bus ah Wine’, ‘Bad Man’ and many others.
Rapidly rising local song diva Celeste David made a smashing entrance soon after, and executed a brilliant but brief performance which left smiles of satisfaction on the faces of patrons.
Kicking off with Alicia Keys and Baby Cham’s ‘Ghetto Story’, she followed up with ‘Murder she Wrote’ and the popular soca hit piece, ‘I dare You.’
Exciting the crowd with her spectacular and very provocative dance techniques, the talented songstress, clad in a body-hugging black costume, ‘backed it up’ so fiery this time that it sent the crowd into a frenzy, the females in the audience shouting their approval of this superb display of ‘woman power.’
Guyana’s reggae ambassadors, ‘Firstborn,’ were well received, but a few patrons grumbled that their performance was definitely too lengthy.
However, their ‘Bounce dem Head’, ‘Jah Blessing’ and other songs moved the audience to ‘energetic scanting’ in some sections of the venue.
This time around, the Polar Ice models did not only make a guest appearance, but also performed a special dance routine for the audience.
As the impatient crowd began chanting “Akon”, “Akon,” Brutal Tracks’ Mark ‘Anaconda’ Batson was brought onstage, and he managed to slightly simmer the raucous crowd.
Deafening screams erupted when Akon made his way on stage at around 02:50 hrs, and Guyana flags were waved all around.
Storming the stage with ‘Konvict Music,’ he soon had patrons waving and singing, while some ladies almost swooned in delight.
Many tried to touch his feet, and some males hoisted their girlfriends on their shoulders with the hope that they could at least touch the superstar.
Many joined him in singing ‘Ghetto Story,’ and the majority practically screamed their heads off when he belted out ‘Soul Survivor’.
His performance was like lightning, as with great bursts of energy, he used the stage well, comfortably displaying what appeared to be a well-planned routine that blended in marvelously with every selection.
As usual, Akon wanted a girl on stage to maybe ‘smack that,’ and of course he went into the audience to get her. Big mistake!
In the nick of time, frenzied fans relieved him of his footwear, and had he not lashed out wildly with the microphone, he would have lost all his clothing.
On his previous appearance, at the National Park in 2006 for the Digicel official launch, he was relieved of his belt and other items when he tried to mingle with the crowd while performing.