Afro East Carnival: Harmonize's thriller concert

Dar revelers had yet another chance to witness thriller performance from local to regional superstars at the Afro East Carnival championed by Konde Gang president Harmonize.

To many, the Afro East Carnival held at the Tabata Shule grounds was one epic concert from a number of artistes, stage setup, unique and creative entrance styles the artistes displayed to Harmonize 50-song solo performance.

Harmonize never failed to create the stunt show to his fans and audience.

The BongoFlava superstar entered the stage with a floating boxing ring, landing on the ground slowly, grabbed fans’ attention, who most cheered and shouted as the singer reached the ground.

The Konde Gang president brought up live entertainment from his latest album, ‘High School’ where he was accompanied by more than thirty artistes in the industry from Tanzania and the neighbouring countries of Uganda, Kenya and the DR Congo.

A two-day event gave revellers epic performance with Rwandese Bruce melodie, Baddest, Singeli singer Mc Balaa, John Frog, Skylight Band, Matonya, Sat B, Kinata MC, Jane Misso and Mzee Yusuph opening up the concert Friday on March 4.

The second day of the carnival was even better. Harmonize himself performed more than 50 songs, alongside Ugandan Eddy Kenzo, his artistes Ibraah, Killy and Anjella, Congolese Awilo Longomba, Bongo’s Marioo, Dyana Nyange.

Others were Kenya’s Otile Brown, Bongo R&B artiste, Ben Paul, Mabantu, Saraphina, Cheed, Kusah, Gigi Money, Roberto, Sholo Mwamba, Dulla Makabila, Mr Blue, Dayoo, Stamina, Moni Central zone, Kayumba, Amber Lulu and Lody Music.

“It was a non-stop music night,” noted Godfrey Abel one of the attendees.

Apart from show-stopping performance from the artistes, the stage was absolutely stunning. The entire stage set up changed the look of the Tabata Shule and gave revellers a good view of the artistes on stage.

All the decorations and how they designed will remind you of the most iconic big events in Dar es Salaam.

The Afro East carnival changed all the doubts that I had about it. Screen from left, right and front are designed to make sure that you enjoy every minute of the performances from your favourite artistes.

People usually say that ceremonies need people and for Harmonize he really managed to fill the stadium with a lot of fan cheers. Doesn’t matter if it’s about his performance or other artistes.

The Afro East Carnival is among the shows that needed to continue in other regions because it gives opportunities to other artistes to shine and also to earn a living while entertaining their fans.

Harmonize was successful, the turnup was great. Tabata Shule was packed from early hours, something that you might not see in other music festivals, usually the crowd turn up nearly mid-night.

Tabata Relini residents could hear and enjoy the music sounds from afar.

Kayumba also was among the artistes who didn’t finish their performances due to the time, a big problem in most of music festivals. One among the artistes who mesmerized the audience was Saraphina, she is a good performer, you can’t deny her energy when she is on stage with her dancers.

I wish I could see a lot of female artistes but we only had the chance of enjoying the few ones from Gigi Money, Amber Lulu, Snura, Dayna Nyange and Anjella. I didn’t know why but at least we had a number of females who rocked and put up heavy shows.

Without forgetting the high tempo genre, Singeli burned the entire stage the way people dance with their stars. Dullah Makabila as usual instructed his fans to move from left to right and throw dust. The fans started to throw sand and dust at him.

Dullah Makabila’s fan, Rehema, narrates that the performance by the former was like he created the event.

“You killed it, the way you perform seems as if you’re the creator of the Afro east Carnival which is a good show by the way,” cheered Rehema.

Stamina, Moni Centralzone brought the real east hip hop energy to the stage.

Sat B also hyped the stage, despite performing at late hours, the audience was still jamming to the vibe from his live performance.

When it comes to the Konde Gang artistes, Kili and Ibrah came with unusual entrances. Kili entered the stage singing inside a pot, while being carried.

For his part, Ibrah entered the stage while in a casket, one of the entrances that raised questions why Ibrah chose to do that stunt. But it is good now we have the chance to see our artistes using different creativities to make their shows look more attractive.

“Ibraah is always creative when it comes to entrance… the coffin was another level, he always comes up with unique styles that always represent,” says George, who is a fan.

From most of the expectation it was seen like Harmonize wasn’t able to accomplish the festival but he proved them wrong because the show was more powerful when it comes to the music industry.

It is not easy to mention all the performances on that day but the energy of the artistes to the show was extraordinary, don’t know how much Konde pays them but the jamming is very amazing.

The show ended with the Harmonize performance. During the show, he surprised fans by entering the stage with his baby, and started to sing the “Sorry” song which got the attention of the audience because everyone was silent, listening to the deep voice and message from the song.

From the comments of his fans, others described it as a bad thing to enter the stage with the little baby while others said it’s good doing so.

“A baby needs to be left at home sleeping guys,” said another. Others blamed Harmonize for not having a good fashion designer but most of them appreciated his performance.

Harmonize managed to perform more than 50 songs that are from his album High School and Afro East and other previous songs that he used to sing when he was at the former label WCB.