News: ETANA ENJOYS EUROPE

ETANA

Reggae's crown princess Etana has ended the first leg of her summer tour of the European continent where she is bringing the sounds of reggae to the ears of tens of thousands of people as the singer makes her way through 11 countries and 14 cities.

Etana, whose third studio album is due early next year, will be performing at some of Europe's largest festivals, which she says is something that never gets old.

"Performing in Europe is so exciting. The people are so appreciative of our culture and our music and I still get goosebumps when the crowd sings along with me word for word," the songbird said from a hotel room in Berlin.

"Because the album isn't quite ready yet, I'm not really singing a lot of new songs, so people are enjoying the show so much more. They know every song in the set list and trust me, they sing along and get involved in the performance," she continued.

The tour began on June 22 in Lisbon, Portugal, where she headlined the Musa Festival. From there, she travelled to the United Kingdom, performing in Dunstable and London.

After that, Etana journeyed to Vienna in Austria, Madrid in Spain, Rotterdam in Holland, Stockholm in Sweden, Oslo in Norway, Zurich in Switzerland and Berlin in Germany.

The singer has now taken a break but will head to the CanJam Festival in Toronto, Canada, on July 21, and then finish her tour in Europe.

She resumes the tour in Birmingham in the UK, and that leg will see her heading to Benaccasim in Spain for two performances, including the Spain Rototom Festival. Etana will also make a feature performance on the Uprising Festival in Slovakia and the Chiemsee Festival in Germany.

One of the best tours

"The way things are looking here, this is shaping up to be one of the best tours in Europe. Things are much smoother, not many hiccups. None of the dates got cancelled, and the people came out in numbers for club dates and the festivals were crazy! I won't even mention how insane Portugal was, and I am so looking forward to Rototom in Spain and Chiemsee in Germany."

While Etana has not sung many new songs, she has enchanted her audience with some new material.

Etana first emerged on the scene with powerful vocals and positive messages in singles such as Roots and Wrong Address. Those two singles catapulted her to international fame and led to her first studio album The Strong One, which yielded numerous chart-topping singles and awards.

Her second album, Free Expressions, saw the singer reaping similar success.