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Joyous Celebration

One of the "to do things" I have always wanted to do since I started going to South Africa in 2004 was to watch Joyous Celebration perform live. Who is Joyous Celebration? Joyous Celebration is a gospel music outfit of local South African and international artists that have produced gospel CDs and DVDs since 1994. Joyous Celebration is a dream that was born when Jabu Hlongwane, Lindelani Mkhize and Mthunzi Namba who had met in concerts and conventions in and around Durban toyed around the idea of collaborating. In 1994 a show dubbed Joyous Celebration was held to  celebrate the peaceful transition of South Africa when it became independent. 


Each year since 1994 Joyous Celebration has been releasing an album as a CD and DVD around March/April. The release is followed by tours in various South African cities. Since 2004 I have made sure I have collected all the CDs that have been released to-date, the last being Joyous 17 (a triple CD offering) and double DVD offering. The songs are done in most of the local South African languages, English and other African languages. Some of the songs are a re-arrangement of old gospel favourites. I have taped and sang along to some of these songs at some times. Having watched Joyous Celebration perform on DVD I always looked forward to watching them live. This dream came true on 4th August 2013 in Cape Town.


Joyous Celebration held a concert at the Good Hope Convention Centre in Cape Town. The band had last been in Cape Town three years ago. I had this feeling that the venue was going to be filled to capacity and I was proved right. My guess is that there were over 2000 people gathered for the show. The show started at 15 00 with some supporting groups from Cape Town and Johannesburg sang some inspiring gospel songs for close to an hour. Joyous Celebration was supposed to immediately follow on stage but due to logistically hiccups they were only coming on stage at 17 00. For the next 3 hours the audience was treated to a sample of inspiring gospel songs taken from their latest and older albums. Most of the fans in attendance sang along to the songs. One young lady who sat close to where I was danced and sang along the whole time! 


Some of the memorable songs were those done by Jabu Hlongwane, Mthunzi Namba and Mkhululi Bhebhe. These musicians were well received by the audience. They also happen to be among my favourite musicians in the Joyous Celebration choir. The song "Namata" in Shona which is an encouragement to prayer by Mkhululi was particularly sang with a lot of vigour and received by the audience who sang and danced along. 
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