BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Barbados-born R&B recording artiste Shontelle struggled to captivate her audience at the Digicel Cohobblopot at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Sunday night.

Expressing how delighted she was about performing on home soil, Shontelle — whose given name is Shontelle Layne — failed to rock the audience who clearly had a ‘soca mindset’.

Her performance came after noted soca bands Soka Kartel and Krosfyah had the hundreds present in a ‘soca trance’.

Shontelle had a few patrons singing along with her as she performed some of her popular hits like Perfect Nightmare, T-Shirt, Battle Cry and Impossible.

She, however, seemed to hit a wrong note when she started to sing the praises of United States President Barrack Obama.

“She disrespected us. How dare her? Our prime minister [Freundel Stuart] was on the ground watching the show and she never acknowledged him,” said seemingly upset male patron who identified himself as Roger Bromfield.

She was seemingly forgiven closer to the end of her performance whenshe invited soca singer Nathalee onstage to perform their collaboration Colourz.

Waving a Barbados flag, Shontelle sang part of the song to which the crowd loudly applauded to the soca track.

The other headliner Lil Rick started his performance in fine form but had his set cut short.

It was close to 1:00 am when the singer told the audience he was informed by one of the show’s organiser that his performance onstage would end shortly. He then invited the Hypa Kids and Unda Dawg to perform with him for a few minutes after which he did his final song, A like myself.

Allison Hinds, Alan Shepherd and Shanta Price were all backstage waiting to perform when the show ended.

— Simone Morgan

Caption

SHONTELLE… had a few patrons singing along with her as she performed some of her popular hits