Vybz Kartel surprises fans with 2025 Guyana concert

Jamaican Dancehall star Vybz Kartel has put his Guyanese fans on notice for a possible performance in the country next year.“Guyana, next year, a blood—at trouble. Gwan save up unno money, yeh hear. I’m forwarding,” Kartel said in a video posted to Instagram yesterday.This announcement came as a shock to fans as the artist had previously vowed never to perform in Guyana following a 2011 decision by state broadcaster the National Communications Network (NCN) to ban some of his music due to concerns over explicit content.“I refused to go there before the ban was imposed so that ban wasn’t necessary. I banned myself. Big up the Guyanese Gaza fans but I would sooner tour Iraq than go to Guyana,” Kartel told The Jamaica Star in an interview in 2011. In the report, Kartel linked the ban to his decision to pull out from an appearance at the Jam Zone Summer Break party, which was sponsored by the government.Guyana’s Stabroek News reported that NCN’s then programme manager Martin Goolsarran released a statement saying the ban only applied to a few of Kartel’s songs. He explained the network had a policy of not airing music that was offensive or promoted violence or intolerance. Kartel is set to hold his first post-prison performance on December 31, 2024 in Jamaica.He has hinted that he will also perform in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. The 48-year-old, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, was recently freed from prison after the Privy Council overturned his murder conviction. Kartel was jailed alongside his co-accused Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John for the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams in Jamaica.Kartel and his co-accused have always maintained their innocence. (caribbean.loopnews.com)