Sumfest Int’l Night 1: Brilliant!

There was no stepping off stage for R&B singer Keyshia Cole, but that isn’t to say her showing was less entertaining. at least for those who went to see her.

Cole channelled summer sexy in a tiered white halter, matching shorts and cropped black hair - a departure from her usual blonde curls, long in the front and short to the back and side.
Known for power-ballads with an urbane rough-chick edge, Cole charmed on Should Have Let You Go amidst bluesy synths, black and white-clad dancers, lights and smoke for effect.

Said to have the vocal emotiveness of Mary J Blige, Cole was ‘Keyshia the vulnerable’ on (I Just Want It) To Be Over and ‘Keyshia the defiant’ on I Should Have Cheated from her 2005 album The Way It Is.

With emotions aside, Cole delivered a brilliant Give It Up To Me, a track that features Jamaican hip-hop superstar Sean Paul for the movie soundtrack Step It Up.

Just Like You (the title track from her most recent album), Heaven Sent (her latest single) and I Remember followed. But perhaps her biggest ‘forward’ for the night came from the popular slow jam Love, which the audience inside the Catherine Hall Entertainment Centre sang verbatim.

“Thank you for helping me sing that. You guys sound amazing,” she said, before dedicating When Doves Cry to her mum Frankie, who along with Keyshia and her sister Nefetaria are stars of the BET reality series The Way It Is.

The singer closed with the still-current Let It Go that features Lil’ Kim and Missy Elliot.
Though the international acts put on a good show, their local counterparts were not outdone.