Oh, what an Independence night!
The inaugural Independence Concert, a celebration of 56 years of Pride and Industry, was a smorgasbord of Barbadian talent and then some.
For more than five hours Wednesday night, more than 400 singers, dancers entertainers and musicians served a delicious buffet in National Heroes Square that not only paid homage to the legends who laid the cultural foundation but told the country’s history through song and dance.
The National Cultural Foundation (NCF) production, which highlighted music through the ages, featured multiple genres such as popular folk songs our great grandparents and grandparents may be familiar with, church choruses our parents sang as children, the spouge they heard as teenagers and young adults to the more recent gospel songs, pop, rap, reggae, calypso, dancehall, soca, and Bashment soca.
There was something for every palate starting with the 100-strong Barbados National Youth Orchestra directed by Joy Knight playing a suite of familiar folk songs and climaxing with popular soca artiste Lil Rick singing Iz A Bajan.