It was set to be a night of music and dance, showcasing Bermuda's own talent, and without a doubt, the Marcelle Clemans Talent Explosion did not fail to deliver a powerful performance for those in attendance.

Held at the City Hall Theatre on Thursday, the programme for the evening set the stage for several of the vocal teacher's students to showcase their talents, as well as for a variety of other professional and student performances.

Steve Easton served as the evening's host and, though he offered several funny lines as he helped the show along between various acts, some of his lines were a little disjointed and he sometimes failed to connect with well with the audience, leaving his presenting a little flat.

Adrian Kawaley Lathan began the evening's events, sharing two songs. The first, 'Music Should Be My Release', which he wrote, started weakly, but picked up after a little while, however, the lyrics were quite interesting.

The second song, 'Master Blaster', originally by Stevie Wonder, really showcased the band, The Zone, which supported all the evenings acts. In all, Lathan connected well with the audience.

Angela Dickinson followed with a jazz rendition of the Willie Nelson song, 'Always On My Mind'. Very soft and gentle in the beginning, Dickinson demonstrated the controlled strength of her voice. Unfortunately, nerves seemed to stop her from getting comfortable on the stage at first.

Performing 'Summertime' from the musical 'Porgy and Bess', Lavette Phillips Fuentes really drew the audience in with her excellent rhythmic timing, reminiscent of the be-bop sounds and scat singing from the 1940s. She really played along well with the band and demonstrated amazing voice control.

With a completely different take on performance, Taylor Rankin got close and personal with the audience, sharing with them what he called, "violin practice". Sitting down on the steps leading up to the stage, he shared a unique blend of musical comedy, beginning with simple scales and then transforming them into a contemporary blending of voice and violin. Rankin's prowess on the violin was definitely the highlight of the night, when he shared a jazz rendition of 'Amazing Grace', flowing beautifully into a more classical piece and then finishing with bluegrass fiddle scales.

The second half of the evening's programme attempted to step up the entertainment a notch, but that attempt was, unfortunately, not met well by the house staff running lights and sound.

The sound system was a particular problem throughout the evening as sound balances were clearly off, leaving powerful vocalists to try to pick up the patrons who got slammed by their voices.

Nishanthi Bailey got things rolling after the intermission with a comical interpretation of 'Permutations' from the play, 'The Coloured Museum' by George C. Wolfe. Her delightful monologue really entertained the crowd and quickly brought them back to the theatre.

Tiny T (Dameka Tacklyn) then performed two of her own pieces, 'I Love U' and 'Get Down Tonight', along with 'Jiggy Gina'. Unfortunately, in spite of her definite talent, the energy exuded seemed completely lost on the audience, resulting in a disconnected performance.

Makeila Astwood, who performed an amazing self-written song, 'I Feel It', during the first half of the evening, continued to blow the audience away with a presentation of the Negro spiritual, 'Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child'.

Singing 'She's Not There', Lamont Robinson offered a well-polished performance that totally engaged the audience and showed that he was clearly enjoying himself on the stage. The funkified version of the 1960s classic by The Zombies was reminiscent of a James Brown performance.

Cindy Smith, who earlier in the programme received a standing ovation for the reprisal of the song, 'I Am Changing'," from her role as Effie in 'Dream Girls', was accompanied by several back up singers from the New Seasons Choir to perform the gospel song, 'Hear My Cry'.

The ladies later returned to the stage with several other members of the choir to conclude the night's events with performances of the songs 'Grateful' and 'Giants'.

Other performers for the evening included dancers from the Bermuda School of Russian Ballet, Angela Brangman, Aimee Bento, Alan Smith, the Bermuda National Youth Jazz Ensemble, Hannah Eggin and Christine Allison.