Richard Rushmore feels the vibe of the World Cup concert in Soweto, but finds that feeling isn’t always the same as hearing.
It’s amazing how we perceive talent in the entertainment world and what it actually amounts to.
Take the massive pre World Cup concert in Soweto the other night. Billed as a night when the world’s stars came out to play to celebrate this huge world event, it delivered on a lot of levels. But some of the acts were . . . to be honest . . . astonishingly poor. The chief gripes were some rather wooden stage choreography and, the worst, singing that was so out of tune it sounded like someone killed the cat.
All the top stars guilty of this will use the same excuse, that they couldn’t hear the sound in the monitors clearly, but at this level the fans would have expected a lot more.
Having said that, the crowd lapped up the performance of megastars The Black Eyed Peas, who were horribly out of key at times. It’s hard not to get excited though, when they bring out the big numbers like “Tonight’s Gonna be a Good Night” and “Boom Boom Pow”.
The African stars certainly did us proud and the likes of Lira, Angelique Kidjo and our own Vusi Mahlasela were amazing, Kidjo prancing around the stage like a teenager on Red Bull, and Mahlasela wowing the crowd with his high-pitched a capella performance in “When You Come Back”.
Of the international stars, John Legend, Alicia Keys and the hip-shaking Shakira certainly charmed the high energy crowd, who were further pumped up by words from Lucas Radebe, Archbishop Desmond “twinkletoes” Tutu, Franz Beckenbauer and many more. And what about Tutu? The man is certainly on a natural high, his infectious enthusiasm creating waves of positive emotion.
On the whole it seems, those who’ve built their reputations on genuine talent and musical performance came out of the event with a huge amount of credibility . . . and left the fans with a whole lot of goosebumps.
Feel it. It is here.