FOLLOWING a blistering performance in Kingston on Saturday night, songstress Diana King has been confirmed for the Jamaica Jazz and Blues festival next year.

The singer, who burst onto the international stage in the 1990s with the mega hit Shy Guy, announced her inclusion on the ‘Jazz’ line-up during a reception for R&B singer Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds atop the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston last Friday.

She made the disclosure while responding to questions as to why she has been missing from the local stage for some time. King explained that she really enjoys performing for her home crowd, but added that her one stipulation is that she perform with her full band, which is not always possible from the promoter’s standpoint.

“But Jamaicans are getting to see me twice in a short space of time as I am booked for Jazz and blues,” she disclosed.

King’s latest album, Warrior Girl, is now only available in Japan — where she just completed an eight-show promotional tour. She stated that the album is currently being ‘tweeked’ for Jamaica and the rest of the world, with a release date set for March 2011.

She explained that Warrior Girl has been her most challenging project to date as she wrote and produced more than 100 tracks, from which she chose 20 for the album.

“Warrior Girl, showed me that producing is not easy. I built a studio in my house and produced the album from there. There are no collaborations, it’s just me on tracks that represent how I was feeling at the time… but it gave me great joy,” King said, adding that the music on the album is everything mixed with Reggae. “That’s my style… so why change it,” she quipped.

Diana King gave local fans a taste of what is to come at ‘Jazz’ at the Babyface show, belting her hits including Shy Guy, Lies, Treat Her Like A Lady and Say A Little Prayer, to an appreciative audience. Some patrons gave her performance the nod over the headline act. According to one female patron, “Diana was simply awesome. She stood there sipping ice cold water — which is said to be bad for singers — then hit some notes which would make most performers green with envy.”