Natalie Cole rings in the new year, Ochi style
Published:Monday | January 3, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Guests at The Jewel Dunn's River Resort and Spa treated to surprise performance
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
She could easily have said, "I am on vacation", but it seemed as if the music inside her soul led her to say, "What the heck, this is paradise, I may as well enjoy the best of it".
Multi-Grammy Award-winning singer Natalie Cole, while vacationing at The Jewel Dunn's River Resort and Spa in Ocho Rios last week, donned a silver minidress, tiara, and belted Unforgettable, the song she received six awards for, to some 400 guests whom she surprised with an unplanned performance.
Born with the gift of music, the power of soul and the warmth of the Jamaican sunshine, Cole, who is on the island with her percussionist and son Robert Adam Yancy and family, could not pass up an opportunity to ring in the new year in fine style at the St Ann resort.
"The whole excitement for me was to perform on the same stage with her and to introduce her, as she wasn't billed to perform and it was a surprise for the guests," said Cabaret singer Karen Smith, the headlined act.
For Smith, it was one of those jaw-dropping moments. "Natalie Cole has been one of my all-time favourites, she has one of the most beautiful voices, great vocals, impeccable styling and wonderful timing, she doesn't over sing," said Smith, still in awe that she was given the privilege to share the same stage with the powerhouse.
Smith describes Cole as a gift to music.
This is the second time the two singers have crossed paths. In the early 1990s, Smith and the late John Jones opened for Cole and the 33-piece orchestra that she travelled with to perform at the then Ciboney Resort (now Sandals Grande Ocho Rios).
"And she remembered that I opened for her," said an exhilarated Smith, honoured that a woman the world has come to admire remembered her so many years later.
In the audience enjoying the moment with Natalie Cole was also the affable Marion 'Lady Saw' Hall.
Cole released a book on her life titled Love Brought Me Back on November 9. The memoir depicts a journey of loss and gain for the multi-Grammy Award-winning singer, who recounts her two-year physical and emotional battle with a life-threatening illness that culminated in a surreal moment when she underwent a successful kidney transplant the very day her beloved sister died.
Guests at the resort were exposed to a Natalie Cole that seemed to have found a new lease on life.
Excellent package
In addition to having the mega-star at their fingertips, they were treated to an evening well choreographed by general manager, Carol Bourke and hotel manager Scott Robbins and their team.
Commencing with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at the piano bar with a three-woman singing group on the lawn, the resort had on show, a variety of sushi stations and hot canapés. A regular and a martini bar were available, while wine and champagne were passed around on silver trays.
At 8 p.m., guests made their way on to the pool deck as lights flooded the trees with the backdrop of the signature waterfall and the Caribbean Sea.
Forty-five tables were made available on the deck, which was decorated with a pyramid of silver top hats and a bouquet of silver balloons filled with helium attached. Silver beads were strewn around the base of pyramid. Candles surrounded the decorations.
A 25-foot net hung from the coconut trees above the dance floor filled with multicoloured balloons, to create a balloon-drop-and-rise at the stroke of midnight.
The cold-food stations were floating in the large pool. The hot stations were around the nearby almond tree courtyard in bamboo and mahogany huts.
The dessert station was placed under the colourfully lit classic art deco columns that have been at the hotel since 1957.
The mini desserts, in the meantime, could be found displayed on mahogany tables.
Twenty ice carvings floated in the pool and around the food stations and at the countdown of the new year an enormous eight-block sculpture of 2011 was unveiled in the centre of the courtyard to replace the one of an antique car.