BY day, Allison Roberts is a life underwriter. But in the early hours of last Sunday morning, she was able to live out one of her lifelong dreams … of performing on a stage in front of thousands.

Roberts shared the stage at Reggae Sumfest with American multi-award-winning artiste Jennifer Hudson. She was the winner of the social media competition, organised by local telecommunications firm Digicel, which guaranteed the winner a spot on stage with Hudson during her performance.

It was an excited Roberts who greeted the Jamaica Observer backstage following her duet on Hudson’s mega hit Spotlight. “It was exhilarating!” she declared.

“It just happened, and I knew I had to grab it by the horns and go… It was very passionate and exciting,” she added. Roberts explained that there was no rehearsal with Hudson, instead they just had a discussion about how things would unfold on stage. “She is such a sweet spirit, very pleasant and very warm.

It was such a good experience meeting her,” Roberts said of Hudson. But how did that meeting come about? “I was just scrolling through Facebook one Saturday morning and saw the competition, and I thought, why not? A friend and I wanted to attend Sumfest, we were trying to find a way to get tickets and this was easy without a lot of questions.

I thought I could do this. So, there in my room, with my ‘Chiny Bumped’ hair I did the video and submitted it,” she told the Jamaica Observer. The Digicel-organised competition askied aspirants to record a verse and chorus of any Jennifer Hudson track. Roberts chose Spotlight.

“I was really excited when I realised I won. This is what I love to do, so the opportunity to perform with an international artiste was great,” said Roberts.

— Richard Johnson