Tommy Lee first artiste confirmed for Dream Weekend’s 15th anniversary

Dancehall artiste Tommy Lee is booked to perform at Dream Weekend 2024. This announcement makes Tommy Lee the first artiste confirmed to perform at what the organisers dub “the Caribbean’s largest party experience”, and marks his first time back on the Dream Weekend stage since 2018.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary at the 2024 staging, Dream Weekend organisers are gearing up for what is expected to be the grandest staging in the event’s history. Scheduled for August 2-6, 2024, the five-day event will boast the pristine, white sandy beaches of Negril as its backdrop.

According to Ron Burke, festival director, “We are elated to have Tommy onboard for our 15th anniversary celebration. He is and always has been a really great performer, and so we expect nothing less than a show-stopping performance from him come August. We know that Tommy is one Jamaica’s baddest artiste, so we had to ensure we book him as early as possible, to secure his performance.”

Leroy Russell Junior, better known by his stage names, Tommy Lee and Tommy Lee Sparta, hails from Flankers in Montego Bay, and gained popularity as a member of Adidjahiem Records and the associated Portmore Empire crew under the leadership of Vybz Kartel. A controversial figure in dancehall,Tommy Lee began deejaying in late 2007 at Snipa Studios in Flankers, where he recorded his first song, Spartan Story. During this time, he performed as an opening act for local shows, including several from Vybz Kartel. Kartel, noticing that the artiste was receiving positive responses from the crowd, invited him to move to Kingston and become a part of the Portmore Empire, Kartel’s music crew. Tommy Lee Sparta, however, was reluctant to leave his family and neighborhood, and declined the offer.

According to Tommy Lee Sparta, it wasn’t until his performance at Vybz Kartel’s Birthday bash on January 7, 2010 that he decided to take the idea of being a musician seriously, and he soon accepted the offer to become an official member of the Portmore Empire crew, released in November 2010, was Tommy Lee Sparta’s first recognised hit, but his breakthrough hit came with Some Bwoy (Link Pon Wi Chain) on the 2011 So Bad Riddim.

However, it wasn’t until well after Kartel’s arrest and the release of the music video in 2012, under new management from Junior ‘Heavy-D’ Fraser, that the single gained traction. The single worked its way to the number-one spot of many of Jamaica’s informal music charts, ‘’and the video was in heavy rotation on Caribbean stations. Follow-up singles such as Psycho, Buss a Blank, and Shook (Uncle Demon), gave Tommy Lee Sparta significant exposure locally as well as internationally and in 2012 he was not only the headlining artist for both the International Reggae Sumfest show in Montego Bay and the Sting music festival in Portmore, but he was also the first full-blown dancehall artiste from the ‘Second City’ Montego Bay to do so. He was 23 years old at the time.

As part of its 15th anniversary, Dream Weekend is offering a Diamond Club experience, which is a limited availability membership club. Tickets for the 2024 staging of Dream Weekend are now available..