THOUGH police brought the show to an abrupt end minutes to midnight, patrons attending Hennessy Artistry Acoustic on the lawns of SkyDwellers Ultra Lounge in Kingston were thoroughly entertained by the unplugged set of headliner Sizzla Kalonji.

The Rastafarian singer, who was joined onstage by violinist Jessica Yapp, belted out the lyrics to his most popular songs, including Be Strong, Dry Cry and Give Me a Try, much to the delight of the audience.

In true Sizzla fashion, his performance could not be anywhere close to complete without Ain’t Gonna See Us Fall, Holding Firm, and Rise To The Occasion. By the time he delivered the opening chords of Thank You Mama, law enforcement officers pulled the curtains on the evening.

Despite the premature end, Sizzla said he enjoyed his time onstage.

“The love and support from the people brought me out here tonight. We not singing for the breeze and the trees, we singing for beautiful people. It’s just protocol, even though it’s music, it’s a part of our culture indigenously and we were close to King’s House, and I think it might have been a bit loud ’cause it’s outdoor, so it’s okay for me, they [the police] were just doing their job,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Sizzla was recently booted from California festival Reggae On The River’s line-up due to homophobic slurs. He said, while not advocating violence, he was only voicing his stance on homosexuality and believes that spat will not negatively affect his career.

“We yadie, nothing bothers us! We express ourselves in the best way and that is not a part of our culture, doing those ‘bad stuff’ so we will give words against it and bash against it but not in the sense where it will affect our career; it doesn’t. We are quite happy and we good,” he said.

The California festival was subsequently cancelled.

For this summer, Sizzla said he has a number of plans in the pipeline including the August Town Birthday Celebrations this month.

“We are trying to unite the community and get the violence out the minds of the kids and get the guns out of their hands and increase their literacy and eradicate all the bad that’s there,” Sizzla said.

He plans to release a number of new tracks in July.

Meanwhile, other performances at Thursday evening’s Hennessy Artistry Acoustic included Dvoyce and Ghana, who both injected energy into the venue.

Patron Fabian Myrie gave the event two thumbs up.

“It was wonderful. A bit short but it was really great! Sizzla was definitely the highlight,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

His sentiments were echoed by Camille Davis, who said: “I definitely came out tonight to see Sizzla and he did not disappoint! I feel the police could let him finish his performance, but it was great anyway!”