Jermaine Edwards favouring personal productions

In a time as tumultuous as now, the Fun In The Son gospel festival offers a reprieve many only find in the light of the Lord.

While the 2024 iteration of the festival, held at the National Stadium last Saturday, achieved high success critically, and by patrons leaving the venue feeling refreshed in spirit, already eyes are searching for a similar Christian-based experience. Jermaine Edwards, huge within the Jamaican gospel music space and steadily gaining international visibility, seeks to deliver the solution.

Fun In The Son was the first gospel concert the self-proclaimed music minister played at this year and was absolutely one for the books. His expert delivery of the message of God through reggae music was on display as audiences danced and sang with him through fan-favourite tracks from albums such as I Will Follow You and Don't Count Me Out. The debut of his newest single Protection, which was released on April 12, especially had the crowd worshipping along with him, his band and his enthusiastic back-up vocalists who doubled as dancers throughout his energetic set.

"[The reception of Protection] was really awesome. It's normally nerve-wracking to sing a new song but I see people listening and they're dancing, so that's a very very good thing," he said. Edwards explained that this will not be his last show for the year. The hard decision comes out of a direct response to fans of his music demanding longer performances and more of his delivery of the Word of God. The Peace In My Soul singer also explained his desire to do shows his way.

"This is my first gospel concert from a different perspective. I'm not gonna be doing any more of these kind of shows. I'll be doing my own productions. That will be Jermaine Edwards doing the shows that he wants to do. It's a new thing because [as artistes] we tend to do short performances and cut songs. But there's a lot of people who enjoy the music and want a lot of the songs. They want the whole songs and the whole experience. So we starting from that and giving people something they can appreciate from a different perspective," he said.

An entire gospel show produced and performed by Edwards is certainly something to anticipate but the question is, when will his fans be able to expect more news? To that, the gospel artiste responded, "Everything with the timing of God. As early as the end of June."