(Trinidad Express) Kes The Band lead vocalist, Kees Dieffenthaller, is resting comfortably at hospital after undergoing surgery on Friday morning, to remove his appendix and he’s thanking fans for their well wishes.
Kees’s fans had been made aware of his surgery through a couple of posts on social media, via Kes The Band’s Instagram page, which also confirmed that their Aruba show was cancelled.
“Due to an unforeseen emergency, we are sorry to announce we will not be appearing in Aruba on Friday, 30th November. We are working on setting a new date and we will announce it as soon as we confirm. We thank you for your understanding.” In another post, Kees thanked his fans for their well wishes. Kees also posted a 13 second from his hospital bed letting fans know his surgery was a success. “time to check out and relax. Surgery went smooth. Thanks for the well wishes,”
Kees’s manager, Simon Baptiste said that Kees showed sings that he wasn’t well early yesterday morning. “We became aware of it early in the morning. Then later on we found out what was wrong. He went to the hospital and they told him what it was, but he went and get a second opinion.
“The doctors felt the situation was serious enough to immediately go into surgery. We feel very blessed that they were able to deal with it so efficiently and effectively. He came out of surgery in great spirits and he is resting. Healing will take a couple of weeks.
“There have been an outpouring of love and concern by friends fans family we just grateful to everyone who have him in their prayers and thoughts. We look forward to him getting back to good health and spirits and performing for those who love seeing him,” Baptiste said.
Ahead of the 2019 Carnival season Kees’s single “Dah Wuk” is already gaining popularity. In previous years he has released a bevy of favourites including “Wotless”, “Fetland” and “Workout”, a collaboration with Nailah Blackman.
Kees elevated Kes The Band to mainstream popularity, and has collaborated with major industry talents such as songwriter Desmond Child (multiple Grammy Award winner) who has written songs for Bon Jovi, Ricky Martin and Aerosmith. Kees and Desmond Child joined forces to produce a song for the album of Ace Young who appeared on the fifth season of American Idol.
In 2011 the title song from their fourth Album “Wotless” was one of the most popular songs for Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival. Wotless was also nominated for a BET Soul Train Music Awards in the same year, for the category of best Caribbean Performance.
Kes has released six albums to date, Three Baldheads and a Dread, Lion, On in 5, Wotless, Stereotype and Wired. On 9 June 2016, Kes released their international single “Major” from their album “Windows to the World” .