Kevin Lyttle

St. John’s Antigua- Because we have come to see him as “the singer” from next door in St Vincent and the Grenadines, it is easy to forget that Kevin Lyttle is a world-wide star, who once had a top 10 hit in more than a dozen countries.

The international phenomenon that is Kevin Lyttle was obvious on a night recently when he launched the video for his new single ‘Wine and Go Down’ at the upscale club of Blue Martini in the suburb of Kendall.

There, he thrilled a multi-ethnic crowd, who was just before dancing to the latest hip hop and Spanish pop songs, with his hits.

On that Saturday night, it was not a Kevin Lyttle performance; it was a world party – as sexy Latin girls, hot African Americans and beautiful blonde Caucasians – all sang the same tune.

It’s more amazing that for some of them, English was not even their first language.

They sang along with every word, danced as if there is no tomorrow amidst their wildest screams and flashing cell-phone cameras to capture their own memento from a night of world music.

As Kevin Lyttle gets ready for a new album this year – and with combinations with some of the biggest names in contemporary music – it may be no longer easy to forget that he has already gone where no other soca artiste has.

For most hooked on the Caribbean Carnival circuit, they might have been asking: where has Kevin Lyttle gone?

For more than a decade, he has not been a fixture on the Caribbean Carnival circuit – that has been dominated by the likes of Machel Montano and Bunji Garlin.

What Kevin Lyttle has done skillfully in this “absence” though – amidst changing management and record labels – is to ride his enduring popularity on many continents – and even to the NBA All Star weekend recently in Orlando.

Just late last year he was in Sri Lanka with another burgeoning Caribbean music sensation, the BV Islander Iyaz.

Lyttle is the biggest selling soca artiste of all time – and has had more commercial success than Arrow, the worthy trailblazer whose ‘Hot, Hot, Hot’ gave the world a forever soca anthem from the Caribbean.

The Vincentian has emerged from that type of vintage – a happy-type of groovy soca tinged with world beat and pop influences, and packaged for the good times.

Kevin Lyttle has two current singles out – Wine and Go Down – which the original fans of Turn Me On will love – and something more Caribbean – Carnival inspired called ‘Hot Girls and Alcohol.’

Lyttle still yearns to stay connected to his Carnival roots, while not being stuck with its limitations.

He is preparing a track for Vincy carnival 2012 that will feature that country’s perennial soca monarch Fireman Hooper.

The album will be a different vibe for a different crowd – like the one that was eating out of his hands the other night at Blue Martini in Miami.

And with it, the warning has gone out.

This island boy is ready for the world – again!