TRINIDADIAN Soca artiste Nailah Blackman brought the curtains down on the local activities held to commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD) 2019 at a concert organised on Sunday last by the Canadian High Commission.

For most of Sunday afternoon, hundreds of persons, particularly young girls and women, gathered at the Everest Cricket Ground for the activities organised by the High Commission as part of efforts to promote women’s empowerment and gender parity. The highlight of this event was the evening concert, featuring Blackman and other artistes.

Before the vocalists could take to the stage, there were a number of cultural dances and presentations which helped the formalities segue seamlessly into the concert proper.

But it was the ‘GUYANA’ singer, Poonam Singh, who would whip the crowd into a frenzy with her renditions of Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive”, and Clean Bandit’s “Rockabye”.

Then, just as day turned to night, it was evident that it was pore-raising time. And no, it was not the cool sea breeze whipping around the Everest Ground that caused the ladies’ pores to raise. It was the silky smooth Carlvin Burnette, who came with his reggae mix of Jah Cure, Chronixx and Tarrus Riley.

‘Mr. All White’ chose his songs carefully, so he could charm the women while paying homage to the Queens in the house, but really took it up a notch when he called one particular young lady on stage to serenade her.

Canadian Reggae singer (who has Guyanese roots) Aretha Fraser came next and did her bit to warm up the crowd for Nailah’s appearance.

The choice of Blackman was perhaps done to resonate with the largely youthful demographic present, and as she strutted on stage singing her 2019 “Iron Love”, seats were no longer needed.

Of course, her Iron Love, Baila Mami, Sokah and Work Out renditions had to be well- received; they were the hype the Guyanese crowd (particularly the band of females at stagefront who had just been swooned by Burnette) needed.

A plus for Blackman was that she was accompanied by her own DJ, who was, by the way, a female. Seeing another woman taking control of the stage was yet another refreshing part of Nailah’s show.

But when Baddish- Nailah’s song with dancehall (and young female) sensation Shenseea- was blasted all those inner baddies came out in full force. It was evident that the women were ‘in their zone- baddish!’. Talk about promoting women emPOWERment.

The 21-year-old singer also showed to her Guyanese ‘Nai Army’ how versatile she is at a singer, with her ‘No Barbie’ which she wrote as a teenager and promotes self-love.

The crowd, that was just bouncing to the soca rhythms, had their cellphones out and flashlights on as they were swaying to Nailah sing that she isn’t a perfect, Barbie but is just a crazy girl with in love with her imperfect self. It was yet another refreshing addition to the women empowerment concert.