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Beres Hammond has spent decades creating songs about love, healing, heartbreak and perseverance. But during his August 29 performance at Prudential Center, the reggae legend was given an emotional reminder that his music has reached far beyond entertainment.
The moment came during Reggae In Action, the Jammins Events concert featuring Hammond and dancehall icon Beenie Man. The Prudential Center officially billed the August 29 show as a celebration bringing together two of Jamaica’s most beloved performers.
During Hammond’s appearance, a blind fan named Lisa was brought onto the stage and given an opportunity to speak directly to the man whose music she says played an extraordinary role during one of the most difficult periods of her life.
Overcome with emotion, Lisa struggled at times to get the words out.
She told Hammond that she had once been in a coma and that his music was part of her recovery.
“I came out of the coma listening to your music.”
Lisa went on to explain that she had to relearn fundamental parts of everyday life, including speaking and walking. According to her emotional account onstage, Beres Hammond’s music accompanied her throughout that process.
“I learned how to speak from your [music],” she told him, before explaining that she also listened to his songs while learning how to walk again.
Then came the message at the heart of her appearance: she wanted Beres Hammond to understand just how much his music means to people.
Lisa told him she was there because of her cousin Benji and because she wanted Hammond to know “how important you are in people’s lives.”
For an artist whose career has been built on deeply personal songs that generations of reggae fans have connected with, the encounter became more than another concert moment. It was a fan standing before the artist who provided part of the soundtrack to her survival and recovery.
Lisa also spoke openly about being blind, making the encounter even more moving as she stood just feet away from Hammond. At one point, she expressed a desire to touch him—turning a relationship that had existed for years through sound into a physical, human connection.
For those watching inside Prudential Center, it was a reminder of something that cannot be measured by record sales, streams or sold-out arenas.
Sometimes an artist never knows where a song travels after it is released.
Sometimes it reaches a party.
Sometimes it becomes the soundtrack to falling in love.
And sometimes, as Lisa told Beres Hammond in Newark, that music reaches someone fighting to find their way back.
On this night, Lisa finally had the opportunity to say two simple words to the man behind that music:
Thank you.
