Jennifer Rush is an 80s icon, While Rush is American, (born Heidi Stern, September 28, 1960 in Queens, New York) she grew up in Germany. Her accent betrays her origins as she chats to the audience. The 80s was a great musical era and I went to be wowed – and I was.
The concert started with a boy band, Romanz, a bilingual English/Afrikaans quartet. They were wearing smart suits and their image is clean and wholesome. Andre Venter, Adam Barnard, Burgerd Botha, Christopher Viljoen, as Romanz, performed the South African National Anthem in London for the Olympics. Their rendition of Skyfall, from the recent Bond movie pleased the audience and after the concert there were many people wanting to meet them and to have their CDs signed by them. The singing of Skyfall is interesting because Ms Rush has recorded several of the James Bond theme songs over the years.
Pop icon, Jennifer Rush, whose song, “Power of Love” was the biggest selling single of 1985 in the United Kingdom and one of the major hits at the same time in South Africa, arrived at Emperors Palace this week for a visit that will include three concerts at the Vegas of Africa on May 1, 3 and 4. To celebrate her upcoming concerts a cocktail party was held in her honour, at the East Rand resort and casino’s Marc Antony’s Cigar Lounge on Thursday evening, April 18, were she was joined by Burgerd Botha, Adam Barnard, Christopher Viljoen and Andre Venter, the members of local award-winning group, Romanz, who will perform as the special guest artists at her Emperors Palace shows. (Photograph by Yolanda van der Stoep)
Rush had a beautiful classically trained mezzo-soprano voice and right from the start with Ring of Ice through to the reprise of Power of Love with Romanz and the Drakensberg Boys Choir one knows it is not what it once was. That does not impact on her performance. She still has star quality which enabled her to carry on past a wardrobe malfunction, as she works her charismatic magic with her personal band, a great group of guys and two female backing vocalists. Ms Rush still has a very good figure and looked magnificent.
Her father was an operatic tenor, Maurice Stern, and her mother, Barbara, was a vocal coach and pianist, so Ms Rush grew up in a musical home. Her two brothers are also professional musicians. Ms Rush has worked with Michael Bolton Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) as well as Plácido Domingo and Brian May.
Jennifer Rush
The concert went on to feature the Drakensberg Boys Choir, a feature of South African culture since 1967. Jennifer Rush had specially requested that she work with the Drakies, sometimes known as South Africa’s Singing Ambassadors. The Bala Brothers are one of the products of the Drakensberg Boys Choir and I noticed one of them in the audience sussing out the performance of their successors. My escort for the evening is not only a Jennifer Rush fan, but a dedicated Drakies fan – well, a fan of all boys choirs in general.
Jennifer Rush with the Drakensberg Boys Choir
The concert ended with a reprise of Power of Love with Jennifer Rush, the Drakensberg Boys Choir and Romanz all joining in and an extravaganza of sound.
What I do, see, hear, eat and drink. 