| BY KEDIESHA PERRY— Observer writer— |
Shaggy is preparing to put on a show for 3,000 health-care workers in Orlando, Florida, on July 17.
The ‘Thank You concert’ is an initiative by Florida-based attorney Dan Newlin, and will also feature American rapper Flo Rida.
The event will be held at the Hard Rock Live starting at 6:00 pm.
“Dan is the head of a law firm out of Orlando, and I’ve done a couple of concerts with him for his staff. So, he came up with the idea to do a concert for frontline workers and I thought it was really, really good to do a free concert where they would just go online, register and win tickets to go to the concert… The response was overwhelming. It’s a 6,000-capacity place and we ended up having about 35,000 people wanting to go, so we decided in our planning to do a second one in September,” Shaggy told the Jamaica Observer.
Florida is one of the first US states to adopt a relaxed approach to COVID-19 restrictions.
The international artiste said he is planning to give them a show to remember.
“They can expect a show from myself and Flo Rida. I’m sure there will be some sort of VIP care package for them and other surprises. We’re having another meeting about it next week and every time we have a meeting about it there’s another great idea that comes up,” he said.
Shaggy said he would love to see a similar ‘outing’ for health-care workers in Jamaica.
“It would be cool. It would be something wonderful for them. For the last two years, the health-care workers, or frontline workers have been our saviours — they’ve been our heroes, and this is an opportunity for them to just let their hair down and it also is an opportunity for us to say: ‘Thank you!’ to them. It’s one of those things that would be great,” he said.
He is also encouraging citizens to continue to follow COVID-19 protocols being enforced by the World Health Organization and Ministry of Health.
“Some of us are blessed with the ability to work online and we should continue to practice social distancing as much as possible. The health-care workers especially have to be very careful because they’re first responders and they come back home to their families. I’d like to say to them, it’s not without thanks — their efforts are not unnoticed,” Shaggy added.
Shaggy, whose given name is Orville Burrell, was born in Jamaica but he has an American citizenship. He is a two-time Grammy-winning artiste. His first lein on the trophy was in 1996 with Boombastic, while 44/876, his collaborative album with Sting, won the award in 2019.
His songs include It Wasn’t Me, Oh Carolina, and In The Summer Time.
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