Throughout her performance at Footprints Cafe in Kingston on January 28, Auraiya Hope referred to Damion, a charismatic, settled suitor many females long to find. He was the inspiration for her EP, The Chronicles of Love Vol II.

That four-song piece was launched last week, one year after The Chronicles of Love, the singer’s debut album, was released.

Her entertaining 45-minute set included deliveries of Just Call Me, This Must be Love and Be The One — three songs from the EP which is produced by Rocky Valley Records.

Between confident renditions of Marcia Griffiths’s Everywhere and Ras Shiloh’s Are You Satisfied, Auraiya Hope gave the audience tidbits about Damion, whom she first ‘met’ in high school and established a lasting ‘relationship’.

“Damion actually represents the husband of one of my closest friends from high school. I watched their love story blossom and move through all the stages of love as described in The Chronicles of Love project and I am happy to see them now as life partners,” Auraiya Hope told the Jamaica Observer.

A physician by profession, she was in particularly fine form on Paralysed which was complemented by a delightful solo by Oshane Love, a member of the eight-piece backing band, Experience Sound & Music.

Auraiya Hope’s set was preceded by performances from Christopher McDonald, Mystic Warrior, Bongo Herman, and Experience Sound & Music.

The Chronicles of Love Vol II is completed by her cover of It Hurts to Be Alone, a yearning 1965 ballad first done by The Wailers at Studio One. Her version features Beverley Kelso, who sang on the original.

— Howard Campbell