Mya sets the Big Breakout night alight

Mya takes to the stage on Friday Night’s Big Breakout.

Karen Edie who shone like the brightest star in
the sky, and After Dark.

Friday, May  6, 2005

Grammy award winning R&B singer Mya Harrison lit up the night at the new radio station X 107.1’s Big Breakout concert at SafeHaven, on Friday 29 April.

The dancer turned smooth R&B singer, Mya shot to fame in 1998, when she was just 18, with her first album.

Mya’s professionalism and experience showed as she took to the stage, and had the audience in the palm of her hand as she led them through a list of her hit songs, chatting and joking between songs such as ‘Fallen,’ ‘Ghetto Superstar,’ ‘Woa,’ and ‘Lady Marmalade.’

‘Half way through, after finishing a song, she told the audience: “That was a song I wrote when I was in love. Now I’m single,” before inviting a man from the audience on stage with her to do a steamy lap dancing act.

Towards the end of her performance, the atmosphere was more like a party as she invited members of the audience to come on stage and sing with her.

Before Mya came on stage, the Big Breakout was treated to a local band, After Dark. This local and talented group are all skillful jazz/funk musicians, and very good in their own right, but what really sets them apart is the huge talent of Karen Edie, whose rich diva’s soul voice is truly the voice of an international singing star.

On Friday night she showed it, by subtle and sophisticated renderings of songs such as ‘The Promise,’ ‘The Closer I Get to You,’ and Footsteps, shining ever more brilliantly in the darkness.

It is hard to define the ingredients in After Dark’s eclectic musical mix. Like a thick, strong, Caribbean soup, each of the ingredients has been expertly blended together; but you can still taste pieces of reggae, chunks of hip-hop and R&B, all lovingly stirred up with plenty of soul, and garnished with a smattering of rap and above all the soup has been cooked on top of a gospel music oven. It’s best when it’s served hot and steaming, as it was on Friday night.

After ‘After Dark’ came Blackface, a hardcore hip hop act. Tightly choreographed with the Hollowpoint dance girls, he immediately connected with the audience. Blackface was followed by dancehall acts Flava Kidd and Jah Shawn.

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