Cather­ine Copeland

The Tradewinds Ho­tel in St Joseph's Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do, host­ed a trib­ute to Michael Jack­son on June 26. Avid fans of the King of Pop came to hear Ke­ston Ben­thum, the lo­cal Michael Jack­son im­per­son­ator, give a flaw­less im­i­ta­tion of Jack­son. Ben­thum was dressed in Jack­son's sig­na­ture out­fit as he sang This Is It, Dirty Di­ana, Will You Be There and But­ter­flies at the pool­side of the ho­tel.

Lau­re­ston Spe­cial, an en­ter­tain­er at Tradewinds said: "The event was held as a trib­ute to Michael Jack­son on the an­niver­sary of his death. Ke­ston Ben­thum, the im­per­son­ator, is re­al­ly ex­cel­lent. We some­times use him to im­per­son­ate Tina Turn­er. He can im­i­tate prac­ti­cal­ly any­one." Mean­while at the Drift­wood Pub, lo­cat­ed on the ho­tel grounds, more trib­utes to the King of Pop flowed in for karaoke night. Pa­trons per­formed sev­er­al hits in­clud­ing the ever pop­u­lar Wan­na Be Start­ing Some­thing and Rock With You. The karaoke was put on by Obliv­ion En­ter­tain­ment.

Ben­thum said: "I start­ed im­per­son­at­ing Michael Jack­son last year, right af­ter his death. I have been im­per­son­at­ing stars for the past five years and can im­i­tate any­one, male or fe­male. I be­lieve in be­ing as di­verse as pos­si­ble. "I have my the­atre back­ground from the Trinidad The­atre Work­shop to draw from but I look at movies, etc and study peo­ple." He added, "Michael has in­spired me a great deal in terms of song, dance and ba­si­cal­ly his over­all per­for­mance. He was a very in­spi­ra­tional per­son."