Selaelo Selota and Lizibo bring the house down at Mascom Live Sessions

The second instalment of the Mascom Live Sessions 2017, held this past Friday at BotswanaCraft, captivated all in attendance and the performances left the audience begging for more. The curtain raiser, the ever stylish and gregarious Lizibo, gave everyone their money’s worth with a performance that lived up to expectation. He performed songs that include the popular Mosadi.

During the performance he asked legendary guitarist John Selolwane to act as the uncle who hands over Lizibo’s wife. The “wife” turned out to be none other than Sadi Dikgaga who Lizibo referred to as his better half and bestowed her as Mrs. Simon. The two later sang a duet, True Love, which is featured on Lizibo’s latest album.

Sadi undoubtedly proved that she is more than a pretty face as she has oodles of talent. The media personality, who is also brand ambassador for Glambition Hair and Gene Media, looked radiant on stage and swayed seductively in a black body-forming halter neck gown as she serenaded the crowd with her smooth melodic voice. Lizibo closed his set by singing Malebeswa, the same title of his album. The song has a reggae feel and upbeat tempo and the audience bopped their heads and jived to the jam.

The main attraction, musician and composer, Selaelo Selota, who has six albums under his belt, pranced onto the stage dressed to the nines in a pin-striped blue, black and white jacket, white shirt and pants, complete with formal Italian shoes. A chocolate fountain of flesh and muscle, the Limpopo-born man stunned with his chiselled physique, which shows that he works out religiously.

The energetic Selota took to humping in the air, much to the excitement of some women in the audience, who screamed excitedly, perhaps bedazzled by his eyebrow raising crotch acrobatics. But it was his strumming on the guitar that left many mesmerised. Selota is a musical beast; it is like he was born strumming away on the guitar. His fingers moved magically and effortlessly as he kept his head in the air, eyes half-closed, as if transported to another world and occasionally contorting his face into strange facial expression like he is being electrocuted. He was clearly on a high. The original guitarist who is known to be calm off stage but a crazy ball of energy on stage, performed songs such as Le le kae, Thrrr phaa and Lolita. The nostalgia classic song, Dali wa tsamaya, which is a crowd favourite, had the audience singing along happily.

Selota later introduced his backing vocalist, Surprise Malanga-Mathabela, as his vocal protégé. A regal woman, dressed in an African print boob-tube top and skinny jeans with court heels, her slender frame and smooth skin gave her the appearance of someone who takes regular milk baths and enemas. She is also quite a lady; she danced in a proper manner, not lifting her legs up too high nor jumping up and down, that by the time she got off the stage, she was still as put together as when the performance started.

 Selota told the audience that he was in awe when he first heard her sing. “I met her about three months ago and realised that she had to share her gift.  She is very talented… you should look out for her,” he said. There was a moment of silence when the lady belted out in tune.

Her hauntingly beautiful rich voice left the audience spellbound. She sang effortlessly but her voice filled and riverberated across the venue. The band members were also on steroids. The pianists hammered the keyboard with unmatched passion, the percussionist was on a musical high and the drummer hit notes like his life depended on it.

At some point it was like a competition of ‘amazing noise’ as all four keyed, strummed, drummed and stomped in wild unison taking the audience into a wild frenzy. Selota also took a moment to pay homage to local jazz artists such as Sereetsi and the Natives, Zeus and Shanti Lo, among others, before calling Lizibo back onstage for what appeared to be an impromptu vocal duet that closed the show.