Day 1 – RIDDIM looks back at an unforgettable opening day of Summerjam in Cologne, Germany.

From outstanding live performances and exclusive backstage interviews to the best photo moments and video highlights, we’ve rounded up everything that made Friday at Summerjam so special.

Dive into our recap and relive the vibes, the music, and the unique atmosphere that kicked off this year’s festival.

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Open­ing the Fes­ti­val: The Odd­roots

Attack: Bring­ing The Gam­bia on the Sum­mer­jam Stage

Cul­ture With Keny­at­ta Hill

Pro­to­je In His Sec­ond Home

Full A Fyah: Queen Omega

Char­ly Black Ignites the Dance­hall Takeover

Valiant aka Father Dip­lo aka Mis­ter Kotch E Hat A Lie aka Mis­ter Chop­pa Gospel

The Queen of Dance­hall: Spice

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Opening the Festival: The Oddroots

Fresh from win­ning the Sum­mer­jam Band Con­test, Rome’s The Odd­roots had the hon­or of open­ing this year’s fes­ti­val on Fri­day at the Green Stage. The Ital­ian band wast­ed no time set­ting the tone for the week­end, deliv­er­ing an ener­getic per­for­mance and wel­com­ing spe­cial guest Ras Tewelde to the stage.

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Attack: Bringing The Gambia on the Summerjam Stage

Fol­low­ing The Odd­roots on the Green Stage, Gam­bian artist Attack kept the momen­tum going with a per­for­mance full of ener­gy and pos­i­tive vibes. Blend­ing reg­gae influ­ences with his own dis­tinc­tive style, he quick­ly con­nect­ed with the Sum­mer­jam crowd and con­tin­ued Fri­day’s strong start.

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Culture With Kenyatta Hill

Cul­ture returned to the Sum­mer­jam stage with Keny­at­ta Hill proud­ly car­ry­ing on the lega­cy of his father, the late Joseph Hill. Hon­or­ing the group’s rich his­to­ry while bring­ing his own pres­ence to the per­for­mance, Keny­at­ta led the band through a set of time­less roots reg­gae clas­sics that res­onat­ed with fans of all gen­er­a­tions.

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Protoje In His Second Home

By now, Sum­mer­jam must feel like a sec­ond home to Pro­to­je. A famil­iar face at the fes­ti­val, he once again proved why he’s one of the scene’s most respect­ed live per­form­ers, deliv­er­ing an out­stand­ing set filled with musi­cal excel­lence, uplift­ing mes­sages, and irre­sistible vibes. If it were up to us, there would always be a place for Pro­to­je on the Sum­mer­jam line­up.

Impressions by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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Full A Fyah: Queen Omega

Backed by Roy­al Souls, Queen Omega lit up the Sum­mer­jam stage with her unmis­tak­able voice and mag­net­ic pres­ence. Her pow­er­ful vocals, fiery lyrics, and unique per­for­mance style cre­at­ed an unfor­get­table atmos­phere, keep­ing the crowd ful­ly engaged through­out the set.

Impressions by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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Charly Black Ignites the Dancehall Takeover

The Dance­hall Takeover host­ed by Jug­glerz brought pure par­ty vibes to the Green Stage, kick­ing off with Jamaican hit­mak­er Char­ly Black. With crowd favorites like ”Par­ty Ani­mal” and ”Whine & Kotch”, he had the mas­sive singing along and danc­ing from the very first beat.

Impressions by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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Valiant aka Father Diplo aka Mister Kotch E Hat A Lie aka Mister Choppa Gospel

Next up was Valiant, mak­ing his Sum­mer­jam debut as part of the Dance­hall Takeover. The dance­hall star had the crowd join­ing in for the famous ”Dunce Cheque”, prov­ing why he’s one of Jamaica’s hottest names right now. After his set, he even took a few min­utes to catch up with us – check this out!

Impressions by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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The Queen of Dancehall: Spice

Spice made a spec­tac­u­lar entrance, rolling onto the Green Stage in a giant bed to close out the Dance­hall Takeover in unfor­get­table fash­ion. Backed by four dancers from Ger­many and Por­tu­gal, the Queen of Dance­hall deliv­ered the provoca­tive, high-ener­gy per­for­mance she’s famous for, blend­ing fierce chore­og­ra­phy with her unmis­tak­able stage pres­ence. Nev­er one to shy away from explic­it lyrics or play­ful crowd inter­ac­tion, Spice turned the stage into a cel­e­bra­tion of dance­hall cul­ture at its bold­est.

Impressions by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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