When finally, the crowd calmed down and Frank began to sing,
I understood what it meant to be blessed with talent and connected to a divine
source. I could feel a special essence backing up his performance, I could feel
the over powering urge to just close my eyes and get lost in worshiping God
and from my cursory glance around I could tell I wasn’t alone in my feeling.
He was dressed in a smart suit, I couldn’t decipher the color from my vantage but I could see clearly that he was holding an
accordion. He did a rendition of some of his classics and got the crowd wild
and out with excitement, then just at the brink of total frenzy, he stopped the
music and went into a slow version of his popular song “OGHENE DOH”.
I felt time paused in that moment, it felt like a poem I
wrote on my blog:
Can a whole
lifetime fit into a moment?
And can
eternity be caged in a minute…
Thousands of people were standing on the square at that moment
but I daresay I would have heard a pin if it had fallen down then. I felt a
need to understand music more and get connected to a source of inspiration, it
became clear to me how much power music wields when understood and well
handled.
On and on, the performances came and went each unique and
brilliant in its own way. Time just streamed by unnoticed while I savored each
moment as my Hilary mounted up almost to the brink.
There were moments that I didn’t want to end, moments like
when Donnie McClurkin endorsed Nigerian born Nathaniel’s Bassey hit song
“Imela”, when Kim Burrell brought out her protégé: a high pitched Micah Stapley
kind of crooner from Abuja with a unique slur in his voice, when Don Moen led
the worship session and even better still when his backup singer took over, when
Donnie for the second time sang in a local dialect, this time using Frank
Edward’s hit song “Oghene doh” and finally when Chioma Jesus came on stage and
blew up the atmosphere with a spiritual outburst of lyrics and melody that sent
everyone on their knees in reverence to God.
It was music at its best; it was
uplifting, refreshing and still entertaining. Granted a lot of the performances
were vocal renditions of timeless classics like Agnus Dei, Halleluiah and
others and being a gospel concert, one would expect by default to hear a whole
lot of vocal twist, new trending songs and creative instrumentation instead of
a steady flow of steamy worship session punctuated only by the ever puritan
choir leader Hezekiah Walker who stuck to his classic choir groove like a
hallowed religion which in itself was a pleasant switch from the previous but
also pleasant pattern. Still, it was beyond just a concert and I felt innately
that it wouldn’t have been better if it had the trappings of a typical gospel
concert like I expected and my thoughts were cemented by the regal and elegant
host: Pastor Paul Adefarasin when in his speech he said “The experience is not
just a gathering of the world’s elite in gospel music but it is a celebration
of those who truly love God”
I couldn’t have thought about it
better than that and I was equally astounded by the fact that the experience
had no financial benefit tied to it. So basically, he was investing millions of
naira into a venture that had no financial or physical gain because he loves
God and has a passion for music.
THERE IS REALLY A REASON WHY IT DOESN’T
GET BETTER THAN THE EXPERIENCE…
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