In­nis Fran­cis

For­mer so­ca and chut­ney en­ter­tain­er Car­lene Wells brought pa­trons to their feet and to the al­tar on Sep­tem­ber 26, as she staged her first ma­jor con­cert in ten years since ded­i­cat­ing her life to Christ.

Wells, backed by a host of broth­ers and sis­ters in Christ, trans­formed the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce at West­moor­ings in­to a sanc­tu­ary of hope and heal­ing.

Mark­ing a decade since she left sec­u­lar mu­sic to serve the Lord, Wells used her gift of song in praise and wor­ship. She made a dra­mat­ic en­trance from be­hind the au­di­ence in a cham­pagne-gold se­quin romper with a flow­ing white cali-fab­ric over­coat, belt­ing out prais­es.

The Bel­mont na­tive de­liv­ered pow­er­ful ren­di­tions of The Mighty Name of Je­sus and I On­ly Sing For You be­fore call­ing women to cel­e­brate them­selves in song with her an­them I Cel­e­brate Me.

Not for­get­ting her roots in the in­dus­try, Wells gave a fiery per­for­mance, com­plete with a skit, to show how mu­sic can be rein­ter­pret­ed for mass ap­peal.

Her sec­u­lar hits, the chut­ney/so­ca favourites Moth­er-In-Law Pres­sure and Par­ty Mood, served as a re­minder of her jour­ney.

Adding to the evening’s mo­men­tum was To­bag­on­ian-born, New York-based Rev­erend Easlyn Orr.

Orr tes­ti­fied that af­ter be­ing bedrid­den for a year fol­low­ing an ac­ci­dent in the US and un­der­go­ing mul­ti­ple surg­eries, in­clud­ing one on her leg that pre­vent­ed her from wear­ing heels, she was stand­ing in praise.

De­fy­ing her chal­lenges, Orr piv­ot­ed across the stage, en­gag­ing the au­di­ence in wor­ship. She opened with a rich, vi­bra­to-filled ren­di­tion of the tra­di­tion­al Amaz­ing Grace, fol­lowed by Hold­ing On, His Grace is Good Enough For Me, Who Has The Fi­nal Say, and Good­ness of God.

Wells said the show en­cap­su­lat­ed her ca­reer jour­ney, the highs and lows that made her ac­com­plish­ments pos­si­ble. In a quick cos­tume change, she re­turned in a bronze Pun­ta-in­spired out­fit to de­liv­er the night’s an­them, I Have De­cid­ed to Fol­low Je­sus.

She al­so shared the spot­light with gospel acts Bj’orn Pierre, Jaron Nurse, Sher­main and Nathaniel.