The Namibia Economist

Lira to headline jazz festival

The official countdown to the biggest Jazz Festival in the country kicked off last week at the launch and artist announcement of the Windhoek Jazz Festival 2012.
Now in its 5th year the jazz festival has become the hottest and biggest music festival on the Namibian music scene. This year’s festival promises to be even better than before with an exciting line-up of artists.
The upcoming artists ‘the newbies’ had to battle one another for a chance to perform at the prestigious event. Auditions were held on 23 June at the 99FM Playhouse Theatre where 9 bands auditioned and a panel of judges rated them based on their musical compilations, arrangement and vocal ability on a scale of 1 to 5.
Three bands got the nod from the judges. They are the Pulpit, Denise, and Chillin in the Park. A jazz off was held on 14 July to select other artists and the winners of the jazz off were voted for by members of the public for a chance to perform at the festival. Voting lines were open for two weeks and Lize Ehlers, Adora, Major 7ths and Ugly Creatures emerged as the public’s favourites.
Speaking at the Jazz Festival launch, Mayor of Windhoek Elaine Trepper, said “apart from contributing to our local economy and business development, the Windhoek Jazz Festival significantly contributes to elevating Windhoek’s status as a vibrant cultural and artistic city”.
BET (Black Entertainment Television) award nominee for best international artist, Lira, home grown song bird Shishani and South African Afro Jazz musician Selaelo Selota will be the feature acts at the festival. Selota is a song writer, composer and teacher, his debut album’Painted Faces’ achieved platinum status alongside his latest release ‘Enchanted Gardens’ which has achieved gold status.
The Festival will be held at the Hage Geingob stadium on 3 November. Ticket will be available via Computicket.

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