Vybz Kartel Plans New Year's Eve Performance, His First Since Leaving Prison After Murder Conviction Was Overturned

Almost six months after being released from prison following an overturned murder conviction, Jamaican dancehall star Vybz Kartel is back on stage.

The cartel, who spent 13 years behind bars before being acquitted earlier this year, will play a New Year’s Eve concert at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, which holds around 35,000 people.

“The importance of this concert is that a whole generation of people have never seen Vybz Kartel perform,” he said The New York Times.

The star, 48, also praised the performance The GleanerJamaican newspaper.

Vybz Kartel in October 2005 in St. Mary, Jamaica.

Scott Gries/Getty

Jamaican star Vybz Kartel has been released from prison after his 2014 murder conviction was overturned.

“It gives Madonna energy, it gives her world class because it’s the full vibe of the stage in four corners, almost 360 degrees,” he said. “The lighting, the sound, the lasers, the surprises — it’s going to be like halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 2.0… It’s an experience you don’t want to miss.”

Kartel, who has collaborated with stars such as Eminem and Rihanna, is up for Best Reggae Album at the 2025 Grammy Awards, having released dozens of songs while behind bars. His nominated album, Fun with meit came out in may.

The performance marks the first time Kartel (née Adidja Palmer) will perform since being released from prison in July. The musician was convicted in 2014 of murdering Clive “Lizard” Williams in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison, the BBC reports.

Vybz Kartel in New York.

Johnny Nunez/WireImage

The musician allegedly gave two unlicensed guns to Williams and another man to hold him, according to court records, the BBC reports. There was an argument over the missing gun and Williams was killed. His body was never found.

Kartel appealed his conviction, and in March it was overturned by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, which cited alleged juror misconduct, as an anonymous juror allegedly tried to bribe other jurors, The New York Times reported.

Jamaica’s Court of Appeal reportedly said in July it would not retry Kartel, whose lawyers argued the star – who has Graves’ disease – faced “inhumane” conditions in prison, according to Fox 5 New York.

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Source: HIS Education