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Beres Hammond’s Virtual Concert With Buju, Marcia Griffiths & Popcaan: Here’s What Happened

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Beres Hammond

Following a two-year absence from live performance, Jamaican balladeer Beres Hammond negotiated a memorable reentry into the stage show arena with the Love From A Distance virtual concert.

The legendary Reggae crooner’s Harmony House label teamed with New York-based VP Records to pull off the event that peaked at over 125,000 live viewers on YouTube and recorded close to 500,000 views within eight hours of the original stream.  (See our setlist playlists on Apple Music and Spotify at the end of this article)

The show commenced on a high note, with the distinguishable tone of Hammond’s signature rasp swelling from the speakers with No Goodbye. At the end of the opener, Hammond, 65, told the virtual audience – some of whom were projected on monitors facing the stage – that it had been quite some time since he last performed in a live format. The singer further added that he missed in-person interactions with patrons.

Hammond followed up the icebreaker with a buffet of hit songs starting with Can’t Stop A Man and Come Back Home. The singer, without great effort, then interwove Barbra Streisand’s The Way We Were between the verses of the latter, before quickly transitioning to fan-favorite Step Aside.

“Can you remember?…was about 1985, December…in the dance, as Beres usually is, rub-a-dub-a-dub-a-dub-a-dub-ba-dub-a-dub-a-dub-a-dub, stoo-bi-guza-skeng, like to tell you a story about, what one dance…,” Hammond explained, before launching into the popular What One Dance Can Do.

The perennial hit, She Loves Me Now, came next on the setlist, just ahead of Hammond’s first guest, Buju Banton. The duo was on point with I Wish, Falling In Love All Over Again, and Can You Play Some More/Pull It Up. Similar to past performances, Banton and Hammond swapped deejaying and singing duties to the amusement of fans.

Banton sneaked in an homage to the crooner with an inspired performance of the latter’s Can’t Walk Away, which prompted a flattered Hammond to utter, “yuh ah mi fan eno” to which Banton responded “big time,” before telling the living legend that he is beloved globally.

“The work that you have put in in this industry, is only because my people refuse to see why they don’t see, ’cause the world see it. We ‘apprecilove’ yuh eno, everyday,” Banton added before embracing Hammond.

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Buju Banton

Following an intermission, Hammond returned for the second act with lights dimmed amid a smoky ambiance, which served as the backdrop for the sensual No Disturb Sign. The Reggae singer then segued into a masterful and stirring performance of Love Means Never To Say I’m Sorry.

In elite form, Hammond then reeled off hit track after hit track: Sweet Lies, Groovy Little Thing, Kid’s Play, Sweetness, I Could Beat Myself and Full Attention.

Hammond’s second guest, fan-crowned ‘Queen of Reggae’ Marcia Griffiths, then made her way to center stage for the pair’s timeless duet Live On. After the Harmony House chief reiterated missing the face-to-face audience experience, Griffiths reassured, “you know what Cudjoe, there is nothing they can do to stop this. There ain’t no stopping us now. Good over evil every time.”

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Marcia Griffiths and Beres Hammond

Hammond artfully romped through They Gonna Talk, Double Trouble and Putting Up A Resistance in business-like fashion, ahead of his third, final, and most surprising guest, Dancehall artist Popcaan.

“Before mi even sing nutt’n, mi haffi seh..salute to a living legend…salute, love,” the dancehall mainstay declared to Hammond before the pair performed the yet-to-be-released track God Is Love.

Tempted To Touch, There For You, Call Of Duty and Rock Away rounded out the concert.

Hammond maintained a tight set and the band did not miss a chord throughout, nor did the backup singers a note. Much like the musicianship, the Harmony House team were stylishly decked out and complemented the veteran artist with notable instrumental and standout dance solos. The production crew of Phase 3 Production, Frame By Frame and Martin Lewis Productions came in for high praise for the flawlessly delivered live stream.

Watch the full concert below from VP Records’ YouTube channel, or stream our setlist playlist on Apple Music and Spotify.