‘We want Joe!' - Thomas upstages headliner Anthony Hamilton at Women's Day concert

News24

2 days ago

Anthony Hamilton was supposed to be the main headliner at the Women's Day Celebration, however, Joe Thomas' performance was more memorable.
Vusi Nova was not being dramatic for losing his cool with the technical team because their mediocrity nearly ruined the entire night.
Zonke brought a feminine touch, and fans said they'd pay to see her 10 more times.
If performances and energy from music fans were anything to go by, the Women's Day Celebration with Anthony Hamilton, Joe Thomas, Zonke, Sjava and Vusi Nova – held at the Wanderers Cricket Stadium on 9 August – may as well have been renamed to Joe, We Wanna Party.
While Hamilton was widely advertised as the main headliner, conducting most of the media interviews, when it came to crunch time, Thomas' performance shone brighter and was more memorable.
READ: Watch | 'I Wanna Know' hit maker Joe Thomas promises Gauteng fans a Tuesday night for the ages
The concert was not without challenges as the technical team had to pull Thomas off the stage for nearly 20 minutes.
This as the Good Girls hitmaker's attempts to serenade the crowd with his guitar skills proved futile as the audience could not hear the strings and occasionally, his mic became inaudible.
Vusimuzi Nongxa, popularly known as Vusi Nova, delivered the first performance of the evening.
He had initially been perceived as a drama king by some audience members when he lost his cool with the technical team over continuous sound glitches.
However, as the glitches persisted through Zonke and Thomas' performances, it became clear that Vusi Nova's outrage had been justified.
The technical mishaps reminded me of how paying fans had to endure a similar disappointment during Lauryn Hill's concert, more than a decade ago in 2012, where music lovers experienced delays of nearly 45 minutes due to sound issues.
More recently in 2023, Deborah Cox's tour was also marred with similar glitches.
Once the system was back up, Thomas melted hearts with his own hits and other R&B favourites, such as Softest Place on Earth by popular girl band Xscape, the timeless Missing You by Case – who collaborated with Thomas in Faded Pictures and Brandy Norwood's Never Say Never.
Fears that he was reverting to last year's show when he performed two of the songs from that concert, including Stutter were quickly wiped away by the switch to All The Things and All That I Am hits.
Before there was Beyonce's If I Were a Boy and Ciara's Like a Boy, there was Thomas' What If A Woman.
Love Scene, I Wanna Know and No One Else Comes Close almost brought some people to tears with the realisation that the R&B crooner with more than 10 albums to his name knew precisely which of his music reverberated with fans in Mzansi.
However, the same cannot be said of Hamilton, because while the Charlene hitmaker did eventually deliver that track, sing-alongs were few and far between during his performance.
For an artist who performs in this country regularly, reactions to the Grammy Award-winning musician gave the impression that his set was not made for a South African crowd in particular.
This may have been unintended on Thomas' part, but Hamilton was certainly upstaged. 'We want Joe,' chants from the crowd filled the stadium on multiple occasions.
Vusi Nova connected quite well with the fans, closing off his performance by paying homage to late afro-soul star Bulelwa Mkutukana (also known as Zahara), who passed in December 2023 in a moving delivery of his tribute hit Asiphelelanga.
Rose among the thorns, Zonke's feminine touch to the celebration that featured mostly men in music was among the most highly anticipated performances of the evening, with some fans saying they had seen her multiple times before and would pay to see her a few times more.