Sasha-Lee to share the love with US quartet
● All-4-One’s new track ‘Africa Arise’ to be performed at PE concert
While love songs of today may not live up to the standards of decades past, Nelson Mandela Bay is still in for a musical throwback this Sunday.
Grammy Award-winning quartet All-4-One will perform their newly recorded track Africa Arise for the first time with homegrown singer SashaLee Davids.
Now in its sixth year, Music Alla Kaap has been big in Cape Town since its inception, and now heads to Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg.
All-4-One are most popularly known for their timeless love songs, I Swear, I Can Love You Like That, So Much in Love, I Turn to You, These Arms, Beautiful as You and many more.
Their second single, I Swear, claimed the Billboard “Hot 100” number one spot for 11 consecutive weeks.
But Africa Arise was written by South African artist and composer Alistair Izobell.
In 2019, the group celebrate their 25th anniversary and continue to tour as the original members, Tony Borowiak, Delious Kennedy, Alfred Nevarez and Jamie Jones. Sunday’s show at the Boardwalk’s International Convention Centre is also expected to feature SA stars Alistair Izobell, Emo Adams, Lady Zamar and Niesa Abrahams.
Nevarez said the group last visited SA in 2017 and were looking forward to seeing the country again.
“We’ve always known that we get a lot of love from SA.
“We are grateful to have such amazing fans who have been on the journey with us for 25 years,” Nevarez said.
He said the group believed that Davids was one of the most talented singers they knew and they had long spoken of a musical collaboration.
Jones said: “Our dear friend Alistair had started writing this really cool song called Africa Arise.
“He asked me to finish writing it with him and he suggested that this song would be perfect for Sasha and All-4-One to do together.
“We all agreed. Sasha came out to Los Angeles and recorded with us and we all knew that it was a great idea,” Jones said.
The group said they believe today’s love songs “don’t have the meaning they had back in the day” but they looked forward to performing their R&B classics for their Bay fan base.
Asked how they managed to stick together for 25 years, Nevarez said: “We are truly brothers from different mothers. We have a mutual love and respect for each other.”
Davids said she was excited to perform Africa Arise with the group and to share the moment with people of the Bay.
She said working in the music industry had taught her many lessons and much had changed since her time on 2009 SA Idols, where she was the co-winner of season 5.
“I could not have asked for a better career.
“This is what I have wanted to do since I was born.
“Music changes as you go along.
“When you start your career you just sing songs because you like them,” she said.
“But as you grow older you start to focus on lyrics and sing about experiences.”
The Port Elizabeth show starts at 6pm.
Tickets from R200 to R350 are on sale at Computicket.