Franco finally delivers Soul Fill Up second edition
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Tuesday May 2, 2023 06:00
But on Saturday night, musician Franco finally managed to put that behind to deliver the second edition of Soul Fill Up with Franco. Following last year’s successful debut edition, the second version was seemingly in disarray and struggling to replicate its previous success. There was no hype whatsoever in the build up to the event compared to last year, and preparations did not seem to be going quite well with no sponsors coming on board. The event appeared bleak. That raised stern doubts as to whether the show would actually take place especially with the slow sales of tickets, probably due to an all-local line-up populated primarily by your less known musicians. However, the beat finally went on Saturday night at the Royal Aria Stadium in Tlokweng, where a sizeable crowd was treated to good performances by local artists.
The festival had on the line-up artists such as Kgarebe ya Setso, Ponka, Skupu, MC Maswe, Vee Mampeezy, Culture Spears, Phempheretlhe, MMP Family, Dikakapa, Maghebula, Khoza Mkhozeni, Oscar Chabuya, Mlesho to name but a few. It was traditional dance artist, Kgarebe ya Setso who opened a series of performances with her dancers. Different artists took turns on stage to thrill the revellers. Different performing artists and groups such as MMP Family and Culture Spears were impressive on the night. Perhaps it was Dikakapa, which caught the eye. The group is in mourning after the death of one of its co-founders, Gong Master. The latter died last Thursday morning allegedly due to a stroke. The group ended its performance with a moment of silence in honour of Gong Master’s memory. As the night went on, one could have a feeling that the fans were anxious to see the main man, Franco get up on stage. And the MC kept teasing the audience with “are you ready for Franco” shout several times.
The moment finally arrived with Franco much to the excitement of the crowd. It was his first set of the night just after midnight. He immediately seemed to have hit the right note as he opened his set with one of his popular songs, Ke lorile toro, sending the crowd into frenzy. He also performed songs such as Madume, Theola and Tsala tsame among some of his hits. But the crowd went wild when he finally sang his latest release, A lwa le Mzambia. The whole crowd sang and danced along. After his performance, Franco said he was happy that he finally managed to host the show despite all the challenges. He said he was satisfied with the attendance because, he did not expect people to show up after the show was initially postponed at the 11th hour.