Damien “Junior Gong” Marley, the Gongzilla of Reggae Music, on Saturday night, sent a strong message to T&T minutes after gracing the stage at Hennessy Artistry’s Reggae on the Bay 2015 held at the Hasely Crawford Stadium’s Training Grounds in Port-of-Spain.
The Grammy-winning Jamaican artiste reminisced of his younger years coming to T&T and pleaded to the thousands gathered to resist from spoiling the good of the country. “Please, please, you all have something good going on here and don’t spoil it,” Marley said.
Marley was then joined on stage by local soca star artiste, Ian “Bunji Garlin” Alvarez where they merged their collaboration of soca, dancehall and reggae The Message. The song addressed society’s ills where Marley pushed for change and emphasised that children are full of beauty, which is worth way much more than oil.
Marley’s son, Elijah, aged six, also joined his father on stage and just like his father was able to do years ago. Little Elijah was able to totally win the hearts of the thousands of fans with his cute rendition of One Love. Marley, in no less than expected, performed powerfully hit after hit including: Confrontation, More Justice, Me Name Junior Gong, Move, Could You be Loved.
At the end of his performance, at about 3.30 am yesterday, the thousands chanted for an encore “Junior Gong!”, “Junior Gong!” However, unfortunately, they were left wanting more as he did not return to the stage.