European tour response awes Lutan Fyah

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

Lutan Fyah recently returned from a short summer tour of Europe in awe of how much the people there love his music and how easily music which comes from Jamaica transcends language and cultural barriers.

The singer, born Anthony Martin and who grew up wanting to emulate reggae icons Dennis Brown and Garnett silk, enjoyed what he described as a 10-show European tour that included stops in Brussels, Germany, Italy and Croatia. Everywhere he went, he said, there was incredible response to his music. "I feel confident and good for this response," he said. "Each and every show was like a different gear, a better performance."

In Croatia, he said, the best way to describe the crowd response to the music was "pandemonium". He also performed in Lazinello, Italy, along with Julian Marley, and the show in Germany had a great "vibe and ambience. It was a great show." He closed off the tour with a performance at Reggae Gael in Belgium on August 7. He also performed at the Blessed Reggae Festival in Holland.

Warm embrace

Coming from Jamaica, the home of reggae, Lutan Fyah said he his heart was warmed by the way Europeans embraced his music. "The people gravitate to the kind of music that we make and the place that we come from and the language that we use. We don't understand what dem a say and them no understand what we a say if we reason face to face, but the people dem sing your song line for line whichever country in Europe where people listen reggae," he said. "Reggae has a fan base (in Europe), the people just have a love for the music and anywhere it deh, dem find it."

Fans of his music responded well to all his songs, he said, but particular favourites included Watch Over Me from his Africa album, as well as the title track, Africa. They were also enamoured with Save the Juvenile, Rasta Still De Bout and the Don Corleon-produced Come Over which, he said, went out to the "princess dem". "De song de big song," he said. The love the fans showed allowed him to perform for long stretches, opportunities he is rarely afforded at home in Jamaica.

"In Jamaica, Lutan Fyah might get a seven or eight minutes or nine or 10, but when we go out inna de world we sing for 90 minutes and two hours and still waan sing more because of how the musical vibe and the love these people have for what we, the Jamaican artistes, do and what we are doing," he said. "That respect deh mek me even have to tek meself one side and pat meself pan mi shoulder that we doing something worthwhile."

Lutan Fyah left the island recently for performances in Canada and is also down to perform in California, Dominica and Suriname.