Soca and reggae star Biggie Irie will refresh his love for Bermuda when he returns to perform at the John Lennon tribute concert in the Botanical Gardens on September 21.The Barbados singer, who recorded the award-winning soca classic ‘Nah Going Home’, has many happy memories of performing on the Island since the late 1990s.“I love Bermuda. I’ve made good friends down there. The people in Bermuda love soca/reggae music and appreciate good music,” he said.His newly recorded reggae version of Mr Lennon’s song ‘Woman’ will appear on the upcoming ‘Lennon Bermuda’ double CD. ‘Woman’ was written by Mr Lennon during his two-month Bermuda vacation in the summer of 1980. It became a posthumous hit for the former Beatle when it was released as a single in early 1981.Mr Irie has always wanted to do his own version of the song.“John Lennon is an iconic musical genius. ‘Woman’ is a song I wanted to do over in reggae. I spoke to numerous producers about doing it but never got the chance,” he said.“So when Tony [Brannon] contacted me earlier this year about this project he asked what song I wanted to do, I told him ‘Woman’ right off the bat.“It is a very touching song for women. It is probably the best song written for, and dedicated to, women all over the world.”Two of Barbados’ top record producers, Mikey Hulsmeier and Jimmy Haynes, oversaw the recording of the track. Mr Haynes previously produced Steel Pulse’s Grammy Award winning album ‘Babylon the Bandit’.The song is one of the stand out tracks on the ‘Lennon Bermuda’ double CD, a collection of Mr Lennon’s songs recorded by Bermudian and international artists which will be released on the same day as the concert in the Botanical Gardens.Artists appearing on the CD and at the concert all have a link to the Island. In Mr Irie’s case that goes back to the late 1990s when he first performed in Bermuda with his former band Biggie Irie and the Israelites. In 1998 the group were booked to play two stints at the Surf Club on Front Street, a venture which involved Lennon tribute concert organiser Tony Brannon.Mr Brannon also visited Barbados and kept in touch with Mr Irie, dropping in on studio rehearsals of his early 2000s group the Splash Band.“In 2002 he asked me if I would come to Bermuda to work with his band Tropical Heat through May to October. It was well received by the Bermudians,” said Mr Irie. As a result he played in Bermuda for a number of summers with Tropical Heat, and has been back to the Island in recent years for a number of shows in his own right.During his career Mr Irie has performed as far afield as the UK, Canada the US and throughout the Caribbean, starting in 1988 with his band Exodus and going on to the Israelites, Splash Band and Spice and Company.In 1999 he was part of the Spirit of Unity tour with the likes of Steel Pulse, Third World, Maxi Priest, and Culture, which visited all 50 US states and included a slot on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.It was in 2006 that Mr Irie recorded his hit ‘Nah Going Home’, which won the International Groovy Soca Monarch award the following year and was named as the soca song of the year at the 5th Annual International Soca Awards.Coming to Bermuda for this month’s concert will give Mr Irie a chance to reconnect with his old friend Maxi Priest, another of the performers lined up to appear.He said: “It is going to be great to see Maxi. We sometimes bump into each other at airports but we don’t get to talk long. I’m really looking forward to hopefully recording a tune with Maxi in Bermuda.”The John Lennon tribute events, which started with the unveiling of a Graham Foster designed sculpture in the Botanical Gardens in June, mark Mr Lennon’s time in Bermuda in 1980 when he wrote what became his final songs. He named his November 1980 album ‘Double Fantasy’ after a flower in the Botanical Gardens.Mr Lennon was shot dead outside his New York apartment in December that year.The concert will see the release of the ‘Lennon Bermuda’ double CD, a book about Mr Lennon’s two-month stay in Bermuda, and the creation of a freesia labyrinth in the grounds of the Botanical Gardens.The tribute events are being co-ordinated by Mr Brannon and Michael Freisenbruch, with the Bermuda Department of Tourism as title sponsor of the concert.As well as Biggie Irie and Maxi Priest, the concert will feature the likes of Heather Nova, Judi Tzuke and veteran Roy Young, who played with the Beatles in the early 1960s. Concert tickets are still available, starting at $50.Mr Brannon is inviting companies and corporations to book all-inclusive tables at the event, which is raising money for charities.Tickets are available at www.ptix.bmUseful website: www.doublefantasybermuda.com