Label Cloud

maandag 14 januari 2008

Natalia Meets En Vogue feat. Shaggy

Yesterday (January 13) my family, Hammy and I went to see the new Meets show of Natalia in Antwerp. For those of you who don't know who she is: Natalie Druyts is a Belgian pop singer (with some soulish qualities) who got known after becoming the first runner-up of the Belgian Pop Idol of 2003. In the meantime she has acquired a solid live reputation thanks to her professional attitude and magnificent voice. Two years ago she organized Natalia Meets The Pointer Sisters at Het Sportpaleis in Antwerp (one of the largest venues in Belgium. The show was a huge success. And now she was back with a series of six concerts with the ladies of En Vogue and the Jamaican player Shaggy.

I think about 15 000 people where there. The show was quite amazing. She had an excellent band, including Sugarfoot on drums (touring drummer for Michael Jackson, Elton John, Cameo, Madonna, George Michael, ...) with her and she can hold her own on a stage. The show was a mix of Natalia and En Vogue songs. Natalia set it off with some of her own songs. Then came En Vogue with some of their biggest hits. From then on both groups alternated and sang together their respective tracks. Especially for the occasion they have recorded a song together called Glamorous.

The only disappointment was Shaggy. Musically that is. The man didn't do all that much. And what he did was more show than anything else. I mean, he's got one flow and that's it. They made him sing at the end. Unfortunately singing is not something he can actually do. Let's just say that he could open the off lock with his off key. He did his hits, badly at first but after the break it got a little bit better. He brought a friend with him who can sing ... to cover his lack of skills I guess. On the other hand, I don't think that that was his function. Five strong women accompanied by a macho player makes for a good show. So, in my humble opinion, Shaggy was there as Jester in the court of these Queens. He was funny. When he first came on he was wearing a soldier's costume of the American Civil War era of (if I saw correctly) the Confederate Army. I don't know how many people in Belgium got the joke though. And during the song "It wasn't me" he said: "When you're caught red-handed, you look the woman in the eye dead serious. And you say: I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Funny man.

Personally I like smaller venues more, because of the personal atmosphere. For a show like this, that's quite impossible of course. I've had a very good time and since I'm in the middle of an exam period (one coming up this wednesday) Natalia came as a welcome distraction. If you ever see Natalia come to a place near you, go check it out. In the meantime, here's some illegal footage (thank you internet):











Geen opmerkingen: