15 Mar Sweet Emily – look what ya do!
The atmosphere that is the Jazz In The Gardens (JITG) Music Festival and being able to soak it up is something that Emily “Sweet Emily” Williams says she will always remember, and that she appreciates being the first Bahamian artist tapped to perform on a JITG stage.
Her first international stage performance she says is one that she will never forget.
“It was a kind of feeling where I was like I always thought about this; I always prayed about this and to be here. I always imagined myself being on an international stage amongst great international artists. To actually be there …it was like real, but it wasn’t real.”
The Queen of Junkanoo’s prayer going into her 15-minute set on Saturday, March 9, at the 17th annual music festival was that everything would go well.
“The whole thing was I am here representing my country. I just prayed that everything went well, because if I messed this up, this could actually close the door for other Bahamians,” said Sweet Emily. “So, for me, that was more what I was concerned about – doing well. I was like 242 to the world and let’s go. And plenty Bahamians were there to see me. I just wanted to make sure they were happy. I didn’t feel it was about me. It was more about being that artist to bring the Bahamian music to that show.”
Sweet Emily opted to perform songs that were popular with the American-Bahamians and Bahamians that were there, as well as songs that would have American appeal.
For her set, she performed “Queen of Junkanoo,” “Look What Ya Do,” “Quando Someday,” “Find A Way To My Heart,” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”.
“You do have songs that I did that Bahamians alone may recognize and appreciate, but I think all of the songs that I selected were some of my bigger hits. All I can say is I just went with what I felt people could appreciate and give them the Emily that they know.”
She headlined stage two at the two-stage event and after her stellar performance, she couldn’t get off the stage as people flocked to take pictures with her. And she gladly took pictures with everybody for approximately 30 minutes after her set.
“The Bahamians were all over me,” she said.
Sweet Emily was to originally open the performances on stage two at 2:59 p.m. on Saturday, but soundchecks ran late and her show time was swapped, which she said was a good thing. She took to the stage around a prime 7 p.m. hour.
“Three o’clock in the day was hot [and] we would not have had any lights, no camera, and we would not have had no action. There was nothing like being on with the lights, the camera,” said Sweet Emily, who performed with Junkanoo dancers and a stilt walker.
“I left soundcheck at two o’clock, so there was no way for me to run to the hotel, get the dancers, get ready, come back for three. I was back by 3:15 p.m., though. By the time I came back they [JITG officials] said ‘okay we’ll just swap your time, and we’ll put you on, but we don’t know exactly when’. They said they would fit me in and I just had to stand by.”
Sweet Emily had no problems with her later performance. By that time, it was dark, and she was able to have the benefit of the lights for her performance.
“So, we went on [stage] like one of the best times and the Bahamians who were [at the stage one side], couldn’t believe it when they saw me on the screen over there, so all those thousands of people that were near stage one, they ran from that side,” she said.
When the Bahamian vocalist took to the stage she began her performance literally without an audience, although people saw her on the jumbotron.
“I was performing to no one in front of that stage. But even though that would have been the case, people on the other side would have seen me. But those Bahamians weren’t staying on that side, they ran from stage one to stage two, including Tanya Pratt who is the chairman of Bahamasair, all Bahamasair sales crew – Wilfred [Munnings] and his crew and City of Miami Gardens Councilwoman Shannan Ighodaro [who is also Bahamian]. They were in the front there sculling,” she said. “We bust that place right up.”
Although it was her first international performance, Sweet Emily is a veteran of the music industry, and says she was not nervous.
“To me it was almost like being on the independence stage. Now some of the dancers were nervous. They were in the back practicing and doing their routine for the whole three hours we were waiting to go on. My thing was just praying. My husband was in the corner praying. When the chairman came, because I know her personally, she’s my best friend, we were in the corner praying that everything went well.”
Sweet Emily’s biggest concern was that she did not want to trip onstage in front of the thousands of people in attendance.
Her other concern was that her voice, which she said she had been having challenges with, held up. She said she sucked lozenges for three days straight to give her voice the best chance, and prayed as well to make it through.
People who don’t sing she said may not understand what an artist goes through to be able to perform, including voice tiredness from soundcheck and waiting for hours to perform after soundcheck. Her voice held up for her performance, but she said she could not speak the next day as her voice had gone.
Her one hiccup, happened when “Find a Way to My Heart” kicked in, and she was a bit confused as the band she played with, did so to a performance track, and she missed the first line and had to catch up. But really, no one besides Sweet Emily even knew.
“So, everything went well.”
Sweet Emily performed on the card for the City of Miami flagship event that was headlined by the soul-stirring, Grammy award-winning, and multi-platinum-selling Maxwell.
The star-studded lineup also featured Babyface, Jeezy, Scarface, and DJ Cassidy’s “Pass the Mic Live! featuring Lil Kim, T.I., Too $hort, Uncle Luke, Tamia, Marsha Ambrosius and October London.
Also on the Saturday card with the Bahamian vocalist was Jazmine Sullivan, Summer Walker, Davido, Kirk Franklin, Omarion, Fantasia, Tink and Eric Bellinger and a special DJ set by Kid Capri – “DJ Nasty 305 Welcome to The Crib Set” featuring Rick Ross, Trick Daddy, Trina, Ballgreezy, Wayne Wonda, Major 9 and Michael Sterling.
While Sweet Emily said she wanted to see Fantasia perform live, she did not get the opportunity.
“Because we were out there so long and were tired, and it was hot, once I was completed, I stayed around for maybe about 30 minutes to take pictures with the Bahamian people there and the Americans that wanted to take pictures.”
She left the Hard Rock Stadium while Kirk Franklin was rocking the crowd.
But she got to see a number of artists up close in personal – Rick Ross and Trina, and other acts when they periodically left their trailers.
“What was so exciting was seeing them pull up in their cars … just to see these persons up close, my dancers were like ‘oh my God,’ I was like ya’ll calm down man, but to see them … They were right in the back of stage two [because] that’s where all the trailers were with their names and when they would come out periodically, I got to see them. I didn’t want to bombard them and rush them, so we were just standing up there. Just to be there in that whole atmosphere, and to soak that up, that is something that I will always remember. I appreciate being the one that they chose because being someone that’s been in the business so long, I felt vindicated, because people always say, ‘You’ve been around so long and done so much, and yet, how come you’re not international yet’”
Sweet Emily’s response to that question: “So here we go! I’m international now.”
And there’s one little thing that she was tickled pink about, she had a trailer with her name affixed to it.
“I said look li’l Sweet Emily got her own trailer. I shared that trailer with the band. It had two sections and it had my name.” Her one regret, she forgot to take a picture of it.