After Sunday’s Tasting Event, Enjoy A Taste of Gospel, Jazz and Blues.
The Nevis Tourism Authority is excited to announce that beloved and accomplished singer-songwriters Abena Amory and Denise Gordon will perform at the closing concert of the 10th Annual Nevis Mango Festival. The concert will take place on Sunday, July 7, 2024 at Malcolm Guishard Recreational Park, following the festival’s popular mango food and beverage tasting event. Five local bands will also perform: Regal Band, Greenhouse Band, Mark and The IV Band, Gharlic & The Upper Level Band, and XMan and The XFactor Band.
Amory, the daughter of accomplished Vincentian singer Jacqueline Erlene Williams-King and the late Vance Amory, former premier of Nevis, recently celebrated the debut of her latest music video, “Your Love,” with a release party at the Vincentian-owned Woodzzy Bar & Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. “My journey as a singer and songwriter began amidst the vibrant melodies of Kingstown, my mother's hometown in St. Vincent, and blossomed further during my high school years in New York City,” she said.
Amory’s repertoire includes gospel, soca, calypso, reggae and soul. She has performed with Raymond Trapp and the Voices of Praise, an all-female choir, at the Pathmark Gospel Fest and with the BQE Soca Band at Carnival celebrations in New York; Miami; Washington, DC; and Virginia. She was a semi-finalist and, subsequently, a finalist at the McDonald’s Gospel Fest.
Gordon’s musical journey has been similarly stellar. Influenced by her rich Afro-Caribbean musical heritage and her “spiritual home” of New Orleans, her style is deeply rooted in gospel, with a repertoire that ranges from jazz and swing through funk, soul, and R&B. For more than 20 years, she has toured regularly throughout Europe, as well as Australia, Brazil, China, and Hong Kong, and has performed at venues and events as varied as Buckingham Palace, Edinburgh Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and Switzerland’s Jazz Ascona. She even gave an acapella performance for the late Pope John Paul II in front of a live audience of a quarter million people.
Taught by her Nevisian mother, UK-born Gordon began singing in her local gospel church at the age of three and, by 11, was a lead singer performing in large choirs at national conventions. As a pre-teen, she led her own girl group.
In addition to the closing concert, festival-goers can look forward to sampling and celebrating dozens of varieties of island-grown mangoes at multiple events throughout the weekend, including garden tours, mango tastings, culinary and mixologist competitions, and a mango eating contest.
For more information about the Nevis Mango Festival, visit www.nevismangofest.com.