SOWETO Gospel Choir brings ‘African Spirit’ to UK In a brand new show premiered at the Edinburgh Festival 07, Soweto Gospel Choir will visit 26 UK towns and cities in February and March 2008. AFRICAN SPIRIT will opened at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Friday February 1st.

The 2006 Grammy award winners (for Best Traditional World Music Album) are billed to tour through February to and early March travel to Ireland and Northern Ireland as part of the show’s world tour.

For the first time the Choir will not only perform acapella in this new show but will also be accompanied by their four piece band and will feature costumes and dance routines not previously seen.

Repertoire will include songs that deal with the many different aspects of the human spirit, whether the religious spirit (gospel songs), the spirit of love for another (Bob Dylan’s ‘I’ll Remember You’) or the spirit of living in harmony together (‘World in Union’). Featuring 26 incredible singers, dancers and drummers, AFRICAN SPIRIT is guaranteed to capture the beauty and passion that is Africa. This exciting new show coincides with the new album of the same name, launched this January. The album is a warm and exotic collection of moving traditional South African spiritual music, South African pop, American gospel and popular inspirational songs from around the world. Soweto Gospel Choir performs in six of South Africa’s eleven official languages. This magnificent choir, styled with a contemporary feel, leaves all who hear it stunned with emotion. It is small wonder that they are charting a meteoric rise to international fame. Those that saw the 46664 Concert in Cape Town 2003, under the auspices of former President Nelson Mandela, will have witnessed Soweto Gospel Choir in action alongside other musical greats like Bono; Queen; Anastacia; Peter Gabriel; Jimmy Cliff; and the Eurythmics. Formed in November 2002, by promoters/presenters Andrew Kay, David Vigo and Clifford Hocking, in association with Executive Producer/Director Beverly Bryer and Musical Director David Mulovhedzi, Soweto Gospel Choir’s five year existence has become an overnight, multi awardwinning sensation. In 2003 they won a Helpmann Award, Australia’s prestigious Performing Arts Award for “Best Contemporary Music Concert”. In May 2004 they won the 2003 American Gospel Music Award for “Best Choir”, in October they won the 2004 Gospel Music Award (also US based) for “Best International Choir”, and locally, their debut CD ‘Voices From Heaven’ was nominated for a SAMA Award for “Best Traditional Gospel”. This CD has also garnered rave reviews, having reached the Number 1 spot on Billboard’s World Music Chart, within three weeks of its US release, debuting at Number 3. Their sophomore CD 'Blessed' was released in July 2004, through Universal Music. Wherever Soweto Gospel Choir has performed, be it Europe, Singapore, Australia, the UK or the US it has wowed audiences. At the Edinburgh Festival it was the top selling show, with a fully booked season and five star reviews. It was listed as the critics’ choice in all major publications.

In September 2004 Soweto Gospel Choir performed three concerts at the Royal Festival Hall in London, followed by a countrywide UK tour. In November/December of that year, the choir completed a sell-out tour of Spain, followed by performances in Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg. The choir completed a two-month, 39-city tour of the United States in April 2005, with the majority of concerts (many at over 2,000-seater venues) sold out. Soweto Gospel Choir returned to the US in 2006, 2007 and is already booked for 2008!