Praise Umali plays to packed house
It was a night of dreams on Saturday as Blantyre showed its love by turning up in large numbers for Lilongwe based singer and guitarist Praise Umali’s Dreams for Sale concert at Sunbird Mount Soche Hotel.
The audience in their beautiful, smart, stylish, and eye-catching outfits savored the sold-out show that soothed them with the sounds with surprises part of the bill.
The commercial city chased the dream as the former Zathu Band member proved his mettle once again to take people on a voyage of his music.
The concert came barely five months after the artist held listening sessions for Dreams For Sale album in Lilongwe and Blantyre where he announced the tour.
As the headliner, the artist, who performed live with a band that included another former Zathu Band member Paul Kachala, shut the curtain with the audience still yearning for more.
“It has been an amazing performance, people came out, this was a sold-out show although it is kind of sad to a certain extent because we had to send some people back because they bought tickets late,” he said.
The artist, who jumped on stage soon after Patience Namadingo’s performance, said they were not done with the tour as now they are planning to do Zomba and Mzuzu next.
“After that, we are going to go to the rest of the other areas and then we will have a finale next year in Lilongwe,” he said.
Speaking of Dreams for Sale, whose songs have already overwhelmed souls, Umali said it reminds him that he had dreams that he almost gave up.
“Dreams for Sale is a toast of the dreams that I did not give up on,” he said.
The artist had a surprise moment that also turned out to be a surprise to him having a short collaboration with Eli Njuchi in the track ‘Love Me Now’.
“Honestly, I did not know anything, the band just told me we have a surprise for you but it was amazing,” he said.
His cast included tracks from Dreams for Sale and his other collections What We Become, Twenty Somethings and September.
The audience sang along to the songs which included ‘Ku Tiyeni’ and ‘Plan’.
“Great show. We need more of such. All the acts gave us their best,” Umali’s fan Catherine Tembo, said.
