For the past 19 years, gospel outfit Joyous Celebration have done the unthinkable and successfully churned out a series of albums and are not about to stop.
Last weekend, while performing in Durban to 12 000 people over two days, the outfit warmed up for their December release which will mark two decades in the business. One of the founders, Jabu Hlongwane (pictured), showed enthusiasm on the choir’s progress so far.
“Durban surprised us. They welcomed us in large numbers and we performed in sold-out 6 000-seater venues for two days. We had to turn others away because we could not accommodate everyone,” said Hlongwane.
The show was a litmus test to see if the December launch of Joyous Celebration 20 will be popular in the city.
“I think I am going to put my head out there and say that we have the greatest support in Durban. There are fans all over the world and we’ve been doing this for a while, but I have never seen what I saw last week. I can safely say the December show will be really big,” he said.
The show will be held on December 19 at Moses Mabhida Stadium and fans will see the choir celebrate 20 years in the music business. If you know your music you’ll be aware that this marks the first outdoor recording of the choir, meaning that there will be a whole lot more people than last weekend.
“There’s really no time to feel right now because there’s a lot of work. We have the SABC on board and they will be running 19 episodes of a show called Road to 20, which is a lead-up to our launch,” said Hlongwane.
The choir have new voices this year, a thing they have not done in a while and Hlongwane is confident this will add value to their sound.
“We have had auditions across the country and even in Durban in the past few days so you will feel the difference in how we sound this time around,” said the singer.
Hlongwane and his partners, Mthunzi Namba and Lindelani Mkhize, have been the chief songwriters, but on this project they switched up things a little.
“We have great singers in the choir and thought it best to train them into songwriters. This way they can make money through royalties even if they leave the choir.
“We are trying as much as possible to inspire the choir members to do other things in the group so that they learn about the music industry. We have voice coaches among us and music directors. In fact, the lady who passed away last year, Lihle Mbanjwa, was our caterer for a while and now someone else is handling that. We want our members to learn as much about the music business as possible,” explained Hlongwane.
l Tickets to December 19 show will be available at Computicket from August 15. Attend the concert and make history by being part of the live recording.