“Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight. Here One Day, Gone One Night. Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon, Gone Too Soon…” – “Gone too Soon” – Michael Jackson
June 26, 2009 – Beijing, China - I woke up (quite literally) to the most shocking and devastating news…“Michael Jackson has died!” My mind was in a whirl immediately. “What? I had to have heard wrong. There’s NO WAY Michael Jackson can be dead! I managed to get myself to the TV still in a daze…my mind a complete blank. And even as I saw the news and the crawler at bottom of the screen, I just couldn’t believe it! We all just stared at the TV in complete silence, in what can only be described as an absolute state of shock!
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In Beijing for a friendship concert to perform with the Shillong Chamber Choir from India, slowly but surely the news began to sink in for the members of Soul Sounds. There was No way, we as a choir, having lived, been heavily influenced and inspired, could not pay tribute to the uncontested ‘King of Pop!’
The idea first started to take shape on our flight back home, thus triggering a steady flow of group mails being passed back and forth between the choir and Soundarie David, sharing news, links, and potential choral arrangements and so on with each other.
A rather long list of all Michael’s songs was put together and then dissected at the first practice. How do you put together a two hour programme, when you love every single song? Selecting the repertoire was probably the most difficult aspect of the show (next to finding sponsors, that is). Each song was just better than the next! We had to quite literally go from one song to another, either “accepting” or “vetoing” songs (as democratically as possible), to come up with the ‘Final Programme.’
Thereafter, came the more challenging part of the show for us; Movements! Learning so many different dance routines for just one show must, (if nothing else) act as a true testament to our love for MJ! The moans and groans have been far less, the enthusiasm levels to actually “learn” new moves right from scratch, has been quite high, and losing a few kilos never hurt anyone right? So, all in all, what started out as quite a depressing day (or weeks for some of us), transformed itself into the celebration of the life of an “Extraordinary” artist, or as Queen Latifah quite rightly said at his Memorial, “…the Biggest Star on Earth!”
The tribute will feature some of his greatest hits, from the days he was known as the “35-year-old midget” with the Jackson 5, to his solo career, from the ‘80’s, right through to the 2000’s. And as Michael’s music is so versatile, it lends itself to the interpretation of a choral group as well.
Veteran musicians Mignonne Fernando and Christopher Prins will be joining Internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan choral group Soul Sounds, directed by Soundarie David-Rodrigo, in presenting A Tribute to Michael, With Love, with Dushyanth Weeraman making a special guest appearance. The show, Co-Sponsored by Pepsi Cola, will be held on August 26, at 7.30 p.m., at the Lionel Wendt. Tickets are now available at the Wendt.
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