When John Legend visits Cayman to play as part of the Live Lounge series, he brings a whole lot of class with him.
The singer and pianist has won no less than nine Grammy awards to date and the 33-year-old has also received a Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He’s well-known for his collaborations, too, appearing on Kanye West’s All of the Lights, on Slum Village’s Selfish and Dilated Peoples’ This Way. Other guest appearances include Jay-Z’s Encore, plus backing vocals on Alicia Keys’ 2003 song You Don’t Know My Name and Fort Minor’s High Road. John also played piano on Lauryn Hill’s Everything Is Everything. You can keep going with this for ages – and fun it is too – spotting Legend is something of a hobby; let’s throw Lil Wayne, Pink, Herbie Hancock and Fergie into the mix.
John is going to be at Camana Bay for his Cayman Airways-presented concert and he’s already been talking to his fans about how excited he is to come. When you consider that he’s got 1.5 million Facebook fans and just shy of 3 million followers on Twitter, that’s one big deal for the Cayman Islands.
Sonically it’s quite an experience. One of the UK’s top music writers, Alexis Petridis, said that in these days of marginalised soul music, John Legend has stepped into the void. His 2010 collaboration with the Roots was something of a tour-de-force of modern soul, which harked back to the classical glory days.
“There’s a swaggering confidence,” wrote Alexis, “About the way they tackle Eugene McDaniels’s Compared to What and Baby Huey’s Hard Times. They just power into them so that the sheer force of the songs knocks you back. Legend’s voice sounds commanding – he handles the starkness of the lyrics with aplomb – while the Roots’ playing is taut and unshowy: Black Thought’s rapping feels integral rather than grafted on to the songs. You don’t feel you’re witnessing an act of reverent archaeology; you don’t feel like you’re being played at.”
The performer has other reasons to celebrate; he’s just got engaged to supermodel Chrissy Tiengen.
The show, titled simply John Legend Live Lounge, will be the nine-time Grammy-award winning recording artist’s first appearance in the Cayman Islands. The event is being produced as the first in the ‘Live Lounge’ concert series, an endeavour of the Cayman-based Monster Media promotional brand and Paramount Media organisation.
“I’m looking forward to the first ever Live Lounge and to performing in the Cayman Islands,” Legend said in a video posted to his Facebook fan page.
A representative for Monster Media told us, “Events such as these simply raise the quality of our destination product in the Cayman Islands. John Legend’s brand of entertainment is elegant, fresh and classic, all terms that apply to the Cayman Islands.
“John Legend Live Lounge is the standard of live entertainment we should enjoy as residents in Cayman, and that we should offer to those who visit our shores. We look forward to producing an outstanding show for everyone.”
Local acts complete the bill, with Jeffrey Wilson and Stuart Wilson opening the event with Cayman class and magic.
John Legend Live Lounge is being produced in partnership with the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, Cayman Airways, Camana Bay, Budweiser, Vibe 98.9 FM, Spin, Coca-Cola, Marriott Grand Cayman, caymanoxoffice.com and Mercedes Benz.
Tickets are available from caymanboxoffice.com and cost $50 for general admission, $100 for stage front and $200 for VIP.
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