Sean Paul had landed at the airport earlier and was ushered to the VIP lounge while security waited for instructions to show him to a waiting vehicle. The organisers again played decoy with the crowd as
they did with Akon yesterday. The limousine and gleaming Mercedes MLs
waiting outside were not to carry Sean Paul away. Instead he stepped
into a waiting minibus. When he appeared, the crowd- not as large as
yesterday’s- surged forward against the hapless security guards,
screaming their heads off, waving their arms like crazy, jumping up and
down and some running all over the show, just not knowing what to do
with themselves.

Sean’s convoy drove away to the Meikles Hotel, joined by fans. At the hotel a wild crowd awaited him and cheered loudly as he arrived. People forgot
their work for a while and ran out of office buildings to catch a
glimpse of the musician. You could spot within the crowd Rastafarian
colours, the ghetto boy over de and women dem.

After going up to his room to freshen up he appeared for a press conference at the hotel, where many of the journalists became more fans than
journos as they cheered him on at every possible turn. The flashes
would just not stop flaring, as photographers got shutter-happy and
took pictures non-stop from the start to the end of the presser.
Sean Paul doesn’t speak in tongues as I have been made to think from the
way he toasts on stage. Still, one could almost dance as he addressed
scribes at the press conference. The melody is not in his music but on
his tongue.

He could not help but notice the excitement and the love. “I can feel the energy in this place,” he said.
The DJ – yes there was one playing some background music- put up the volume to Sean’s recent hit song Hold My Hand that was playing in the
background as the star entered the room. Sean Paul responded by dancing
along and was joined by most of the journos in the room.

He said he was happy to be in Zimbabwe. “Know I am really following one of my heroes Bob Marley who came here when you guys got independence
and it means a lot for me to come back here to kind of follow the
footsteps of our hero,” he said.

As for tomorrow night, he promised fireworks for his fans. “The energy in this place is good, and usually when it’s like that I know the show is
going to be great.” He performs tomorrow night at the National Sports
Stadium alongside Akon, Zambian artist Swagger and some of Zimbabwe’s
top artists.-zimboja