British reggae crooner Maxi Priest will perform live at Caribbean FashionWeek (CFW) 2014, scheduled for June 11 to 16.
Maxi Priest joins a long list of international celebrities and superstars who have appeared and performed at the event since its inception in 2001. Other CFW notables include Kelly Rowland, Eve, Nia Long, Brian McKnight, Morgan Heritage, Machel Montano, Joe, Sheila E. and Johnny Gill.
The performance of Maxi Priest takes place on the closing night of the event, Sunday June 15.
CFW returns for its 14 staging this year with a new format, a slew of innovations, chief of which is the new online shopping experience,shopcaribbean.com, and a renewed, even more enlarged focus on Caribbean style.
The event is the largest, most strategically important and far-reaching fashion event in the region.
Developed to a high international standard, CFW showcases the best of the Caribbean’s designers, as well as other world-regarded stylists from various parts of the globe.
Participants
Approximately 50 designers from 20 countries participate each year at the event, which plays host to the world’s fashion press, supermodels, celebrities and superstars of music and movies, all complementing the brilliant fashion collections on show.
Max Alfred ‘Maxi’ Elliott, more popularly known as Maxi Priest, is a British reggae superstar of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with an R&B influence.
He became one of the first international successes who regularly worked in the genre and is arguably the most successful reggae fusion act of all-time.
Maxi Priest was born in Lewisham, London. The second-to-last of nine siblings. His parents moved to England from Jamaica to access more opportunities for their family, and he grew up listening to gospel music, reggae, R&B and pop music.
Priest had first learnt to sing in Church, encouraged by his mother, who was Pentecostal, and grew up listening to Jamaican greats such as Dennis Brown, John Holt, Ken Boothe and Gregory Isaacs, as well as singers like Marvin Gaye, Al Green, The Beatles, Phil Collins and Frank Sinatra.
Maxi Priest’s music
His music is sometimes closer to R&B and pop than to reggae music itself. Jacob Miller, a reggae icon and Maxi Priest’s uncle, was the frontman in the popular reggae group Inner Circle.
Priest’s first major album was called Maxi Priest (1988). The album, along with his cover of Cat Stevens’ Wild World, established him as one of the top British reggae singers.
He is one of only two British reggae acts (along with UB40) to have an American Billboard number one: Close to You in 1990. A duet with Roberta Flack, Set the Night to Music, reached the American top 10 in 1991.
In the latter half of his recording career, Priest has favoured working alongside other artistes, both established and up-and-coming. He has worked with Sly and Robbie, Shabba Ranks, Beres Hammond, Roberta Flack, Jazzie B and Lee Ritenour.
You must log in to post a comment.