Sto­ry and Pho­tos

Rishi Ra­goonath

It was a night brim­ming with warmth, mu­sic, and Christ­mas cheer as Joel John brought the true spir­it of the sea­son to life at his con­cert, Christ­mas: A Time To Love. Held on No­vem­ber 23 at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA), the event en­veloped the au­di­ence in fes­tive mag­ic from the very first note.

John opened the show with his sig­na­ture smooth vo­cals, de­liv­er­ing heart­felt ren­di­tions of What a Won­der­ful World, Sil­ver Bells, Can’t Help Falling in Love, and Sweet Car­o­line. His re­laxed charm and warm tone set the per­fect mood for an evening of cel­e­bra­tion.

The stage al­so wel­comed a line-up of ris­ing tal­ent. Mea­gan Leigh cap­ti­vat­ed the crowd, who ea­ger­ly sang along as she per­formed Last Christ­mas, Dreams, and Have Your­self a Mer­ry Lit­tle Christ­mas, ac­com­pa­nied beau­ti­ful­ly by gui­tarist Veer Brig­gs. Michelle Xavier fol­lowed with a com­mand­ing pres­ence and a stun­ning voice, de­liv­er­ing pow­er­ful ren­di­tions of O Holy Night, Do You Hear What I Hear, Go Tell It on the Moun­tain, and a touch­ing duet with John on Is­lands in the Stream.

So­ca Parang Queen Mar­cia Mi­ran­da elec­tri­fied the room, in­stant­ly win­ning the au­di­ence’s af­fec­tion. She paused her set to send love and sol­i­dar­i­ty to Ja­maica, still re­cov­er­ing from Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa, be­fore de­liv­er­ing a heart­felt ren­di­tion of Bob Mar­ley’s Three Lit­tle Birds. She then launched in­to her high-en­er­gy hits—Let­ter to Ma­ma, Thief­ing Parang Band, and Bring Out De Ham—keep­ing the crowd danc­ing and call­ing for more.

Adding to the fes­tive at­mos­phere, The Tre­bles of San Fer­nan­do, an en­chant­i­ng chil­dren’s choir led by Mar­i­lyn Lal­la, de­light­ed the au­di­ence with Tri­ni Christ­mas Is the Best, their bright har­monies bring­ing smiles across the au­di­to­ri­um.

The sec­ond half of the show saw John ac­com­pa­nied by his full band of skilled mu­si­cians, trans­form­ing the evening in­to a live­ly, se­mi-rock con­cert. He ef­fort­less­ly de­liv­ered favourites such as The Gam­bler, Coun­try Roads, You Make It Feel Like Christ­mas, Heav­en, Faith, and more.

John’s sis­ter Denise Michelle—whose ver­sa­tile voice can mas­ter any genre—cap­ti­vat­ed the au­di­ence with Hap­py Xmas (War Is Over), True Colours, and The First Noel, the lat­ter per­formed as a beau­ti­ful duet with Mea­gan Leigh.

The night came to a close with a high-en­er­gy fi­nale fea­tur­ing a retro med­ley: De­cem­ber ’63, That’s the Way I Like It, and Frankie, leav­ing the au­di­ence on their feet and brim­ming with hol­i­day cheer.