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Akil “5Star Akil” Borneo is spreading soca’s sound far and wide. Recently, he took his brand of soca to the 23rd annual St Kitts Music Festival which ran from June 26-30.

His manager Crystal Cunningham said he performed on the festival’s first night. He and his team also used the opportunity to film the music video for one of his 2020 releases called Love Potion done collaboratively with Travis World and written by Kit Isreal.

5Star Akil alongside acts like Jamaican dancehall artiste Charly Black and fellow soca artistes Nadia Batson and Darryl “Farmer Nappy” Henry.

This was 5Star Akil’s first time performing at the festival. He sang some of his hits like Personal, Different Me and To Meh Heart.

“It is one of the oldest festivals in the region and one of the longest,” Cunningham told Newsday.

Prior to performing in St Kitts, he participated in the Latin America and Caribbean Carnival of the 19th Meet in Beijing Arts Festival, which took place from May 23-26.

He was, a release then sent by Cunningham said, the only act from TT and the only Caribbean artiste representing for soca at the festival.

The release quoted him as saying, “It was such a big honour for me to be able to share my music, our music…soca music with an audience like this, in this part of the world, who knows nothing about soca and who cannot even speak English! Yet the music, the soca music spoke to them. It made them happy, it made them dance, jump, wave…it was just a great feeling.

“Music knows no barriers, regardless of race, religion, language or background, music unites us all and I was really happy to be a part of this experience…to share soca music in China and to represent for TT.”

The festival aims to promote cultural exchanges between China and the world by bringing international acts and art form to audiences in Beijing, the release said.