Photos by Peter Morey

RealTalkNY is going international lol, my homey Khetha Mkhize sent in a review of John Legend’s performance in South Africa. If anyone is attending events hit me up with your review and a picture if possible and I may post it up on the site.

John Legend was scheduled to perform, as one of the headlining acts, in 2 shows in Sun City in Rustenburg, on Saturday 16^th June (which happens to be a national holiday called Youth Day) and on Sunday.  It was part of an HIV/AIDS benefit event that started on Thursday where participants from fashion, music, art and food were all part of the line up.  The proceeds from the event are for an HIV/AIDS Hospice called Tapologo in Rustenburg in the North West province (you can get more information on the event website https://www.suninternational.com/positive/).  John Legend ended up surprising the guests by doing a mini concert on Friday as well.  I went to Sunday’s show and it was amazing, utterly brilliant (JL is a phenomenal performer, the audience were putty in his hands), this is where these photos were taken from.

Anyway, regarding John Legends show, he opened the show with the interlude to the song Maxine and then continued with his verses and chorus from the song Do U Wanna Ride, which is featured on Jay-Z’s album. Then from there it was a journey through his musical career, doing a number of songs from both his albums, including Number 1, ordinary People (people sang along to the entire song, it was amazing), Stay With Me, Get Lifted, I Can Change, Used To Love You (come to think of it, he performed all songs from Get Lifted, but Let’s Get Lifted Again and Refuge); and Save Room, PDA, Stereo, Again, Heaven, Where Did My Baby Go (where he invited a lady to the stage and serenaded and danced with her, the other ladies were so envious of the lucky lady, screaming their lungs out, but all in the name of fun), and Coming Home (which people here love as much as they love Ordinary People and So High), from Once Again.  Well, my favorites from both albums are So High and Again, from the 2 albums respectively.   He also performed the song Please Baby Don’t, which he did with Sergio Mendez on his album, Timeless.  After he had finished his show, people started banging the floor and chairs, whistles everywhere and screaming, “We want more! We want more!”; for an encore.  And come back to do more he did.  He performed 2 more songs, including closing the show with So High before he stood up and waved and blew kisses to the audience and made his way backstage, much to audience thundering applause.  It was magical, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.  It was even better than the first show he did here back in December 2005.  His energy, his charisma, his presence on stage, his interaction with the audience, were all phenomenal to say the least.  And of course, he mentioned that South Africa has the best audience in all the places he has performed in, and you know how the crowd reacted to that.  All in all, I would die to get a recording (DVD) of that show just to re-live the experience and the memories.

Thanks again to Khetha Mkhize & Peter Morey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Editorial.