Afro-soul/pop artist Praise Umali staged the first of his double concerts at Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre on Friday evening and with it left a statement of his music prowess.
The choice of the venue, clearly showed what the organisers had in mind for the event. A quiet listening session with a manageable audience present. Tickets sold out before the event even started.
But both the artist’s performance and the turnout defied the intentions which the organisers premised the event on. In the end, everything turned out to be huge and the venue was too small.
With a guitar strapped around his neck, Praise Umali appeared on stage oozing a sense of easiness and his presence gave everyone a tinge of expectation. He opened his set with the song Okay, which is a duet with Q Malewezi.
The singer then made steps to loosen the mood a bit by turning the set into an almost interactive session, asking the audience to pick a song of their choice from his collection.
In succession, the audience chose some of his popular songs such as Plan, You Will Be Good, Konda Ine, Good Life and Come Home, which he duly performed and at times offered explanations behind the compositions.
Just before 11 o’clock, the artist brought the curtain down on an entertaining evening of Afro beats. There was none in the audience who was not satisfied and a section proceeded to the counter of Stakeout Bar to continue with the mood of the night.
In a post-performance interview, Umali said the atmosphere that people created in responding to both his old and new songs was amazing.
“My fans should expect more and better things. I am working on an album which will be out by the end of the year. There are also new music videos that I am working on, more content and collaborations and more shows too,” he said.
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