Vybz Kartel Becomes The First Dancehall Artist To Sell Out The O2.

For a genre so highly praised in the UK, especially London for helping birth much of what we listen to now, you would assume one of the biggest names in dancehall would have sold out the O2 Arena. The history is rich, the numbers are there, the city loves it, so why hasn’t it happened until now?

Going back over 20 years, dancehall has produced many household names, from Alkaline, Buju Banton, Beenie Man and more, all with huge success in the UK. There is not another international genre that can make Kent mums go bar for bar so effortlessly like it is their native tongue. Dancehall has managed to take its impact from Kingston to the sticky pub floors of Leicester yet still had not had any major name sell out the 20,000 capacity O2 arena, until Vybz Kartel made his return after a 13-year stint in prison.

Over this time, there has been an influx of new artists taking over, giving dancehall a new audience away from the classics many grew up on. It has taken over a decade to build a new lane for the genre, notably growing a huge audience in America, yet the UK still yearned for the classics, leading to Vybz Kartel selling out 2 shows at the O2 in September, just after a year since his release from prison. The shows received positive reviews, and his return to the UK was memorable, especially taking on back-to-back nights whilst battling graves disease which is a physical feat everybody should be proud of.

There is clearly strength in numbers and Vybz Kartel managed to put his name to yet another historical moment for the genre, selling 40,000 tickets on this leg of his first European tour since his release. It took a while, but it eventually happened and the size of shows in Britain can only grow.