Vybz Kartel in Paris

Right up to the last moment, we really thought he would not go on stage. It was first a political question, after the motion put forward by the council of the 18th arrondissement of Paris asking the police prefect to "consider the risks of disturbance to public order" ahead of his concert on Sunday. But with Kartel having signed the Reggae Compassionate Act two days before coming to Europe, at the urging of Dutch associations (he was in Amsterdam the day before), everything fell back into place.

Kartel was therefore there, but late. When he came on stage, Dragon Davy had finished his first set more than an hour earlier, and the crowd was growing impatient. His first track, Nuh fraid a nobody, was drowned out by screams: the packed hall was in meltdown to welcome the leader of the Portmore Empire. In a DJ set configuration with Not Nice on the turntables, the show was well honed: heavy bass, powerful sound, good mic levels.

Kartel, who even speaks a few words of French ("Bonjour, je m'appelle Kartel"), ran the show alone at first, chaining hits in juggling style, and moving on to the next song more or less quickly depending on the crowd's reception. The crowd, most of the time, sang the choruses back in chorus. The first half-hour, very intense, saw him take forward after forward.

But we were still left wanting more: a large share of the riddims played came from Not Nice, which did not stop us hearing his biggest hits produced by Russian. Too bad for the die-hard fans, we mostly heard tunes from 2009-2010: Bicycle, Thank you Jah, Marie, Last Man Standing, Go go club, Love dem, Without my own, Life sweet, Clarks again (just before the Clarks duet with Popcaan), Straight jeans and fitted, Touch a button... The girls in the crowd gave good answers on his gal tunes, such as Ramping Shop or Come breed me.

From the start, Popcaan doubled up the vocals, but we only saw him at the front of the stage halfway through the show. He alternated his own songs on Not Nice and Russian riddims with those of Kartel. Dem sell we out and Gangster city got good forwards. The two partners also did a few duets together, Hot grabba first, and above all Clarks, the hit of the moment, pulled up twice and lifting the Elysée one last time. For it was getting late, and the crowd was flagging in its responses: the show's intensity went steadily downhill, until Kartel left the stage, having chained a good sixty tracks in 80 minutes.