Cape Town - A bevy international singers traipsed their way to Cape Town this year, giving music lovers plenty to sing-a-long with, enjoy and talk about.
Fans were spoilt for choice, but these international gems didn’t come cheap, and you’d have been lucky if you forked out less than R500 a ticket.
But it was mostly worth it, as we got to share the love with Sting, Kip Moore, Tamia, The Disney 100 concert, Michael W Smith, George Ezra, Kevin Hart, the Backstreet Boys DNA Tour, Counting Crows, Tasha Cobbs, Deborah Cox and Musiq Soulchild, Soul Sisters, Trevor Noah, UB40, Westlife, Bryan Adams, Dave Matthews Band, Boyz II Men, Shakatak and more recently Bebe Winans.
Some we’re still talking about:
Robin S
In May we got to see the iconic music diva Robin S (full name Robin Stone) in the “Soul Sisters” 2023 concert at Grand Arena, GrandWest. The US R&B singer spilled the tea on her heels obsession, one of which she can only mentally obsess about because her “body doesn’t agree with it anymore”.
Robin S, 61, donned a locally made outfit as she spent all of 15 minutes in her heels before kicking them off to perform barefooted. Talk about being grounded. In an interview ahead of the show, she warned: “People are in for quite a show, it might get barefoot, who knows, I’m such a sneaker girl, oh wow!
“If my feet hurt, best believe I’m coming out of this heels. When that beeper goes off in my brain, I’m coming out of that shoes.”
Robin S is known for her hits “Show Me Love” , “Luv 4 Luv”, “It Must Be Love” as well as her latest single, “See It My Way”.
Tamia
Legendary singer Tamia shut down her performance at Grandwest in July when she returned to South Africa for the fourth time in the past decade.
There wasn’t a quiet fan in the Grand Arena as everyone belted their favourite songs at the top of their voices. Even the most masculine of men shy’ishly sang along to the lyrics.
We were part of that concert from start to finish and if you didn’t know the words, shame on you, are you even a fan?
Deborah Cox
Not every concert gets rave reviews, one such baddy was the the much anticipated “Deborah Cox and Musiq Soulchild Magic Music Sessions“ concert in July.
While their performance was top notch, revellers were disappointed by the bad sound quality and time management. Sadly, the bad outweighed the good with this concert.
The show flowed informally with little to no communication during the 30 -minute wait between sets.
Shakatak
Legendary English jazz-funk band Shakatak celebrated their 40th anniversary in September. The band consisting of Jill Saward (lead vocals), Bill Sharpe (keys), Keith Winter (guitar), George Anderson (bass) and Roger Odell (drums) gave fans an incredible music experience, belting out iconic hits such as “Night Birds”, “Down on the Street” plus the band’s 12 entries into the “Guinness Book of British Hit Singles”.
In an interview, Sharpe said: “As you get older, you look at life differently, we travelled a lot over the years, we enjoy playing outside of our home time as we don’t get to do it as often anymore. We live simple lives these days as we are much older now.”
Westlife
Irish band Westlife performed their sold out South African 'The Wild Dreams Tour’, hitting it off in Cape Town on an electrifying note.
The band members Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Shane Filan and Mark Feehily gave fans a jampacked show and to top it off, won our hearts with their cute outfit change tributes.
Look, we all love to see some effort put into a concert and we enjoyed the four outfit changes but what swooned fans was when the band came out for their final song, dressed in the official national rugby T-shirts in honour of the Springboks’ recent World Cup win.
Boyz ll Men
Fans of the timeless classics boy band or rather man band, Boyz ll Men, spent most of the concert on their feet, as the ballads kept us on our feet with every new song start. The band consists of baritone Nathan Morris alongside tenors Wanyá Morris and Shawn Stockman.
The gents had the ladies begging for more when they performed hits such as “Bended Knee”, “ End of The Road”, "I'll Make Love to You" and “One Sweet Day”.
They handed out fresh red long-stemmed roses from the stage to the audience in the front row and had no issue with time constraints or sound.
Bebe Winans
R&B Gospel music icon Bebe Winans gave fans a trip down memory lane when he performed in his “It All Comes Down to Love Tour” this month.
The 60-year-old singer and songwriter was backed by a Cape Town based band and backing vocalists, as he toured South Africa with three shows.
The performance had a dragging start with a rusty MC and opening acts, but what redeemed it all was the high energy performance by Judith Sephuma who lit the arena with her original jazz music tracks, and opened up for Bebe to ignite a hot performance that took flight from start to finish.
* About a week ago, Big Concerts announced the Michael Bublé Higher
Tour, which was set to come to South Africa in 2024.
However, the next day, the same events company announced the cancellation of the show dates in a brief statement that reads: The Higher Tour will be rescheduled to captivate audiences in South Africa in 2025.
“This break will enable him to dedicate quality time to his family and will rejuvenate and reinvigorate his creative spirit to deliver an unforgettable musical experience and the show that South Africans deserve.”