On a chilly, rainy night in the Mother City, Chelsea Geach encountered a very warm, open Seal ahead of his concert.
|||“Something in the way she moves, attracts me like no other lover,” he sang to himself while checking his phone.
His voice carried melodious and perfect across a room at the Mount Nelson Hotel on a chilly, rainy night in the Mother City.
“I was born and raised in London so I know all about miserable weather, believe me, this is not bad,” he laughs.
I’m loving it here and I’ll be sad when I leave.”
I went in for a handshake, but instead he kissed me on each cheek.
Award-winning singer and songwriter Seal has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, and is also known for his role as a judge on The Voice Australia and his marriage to supermodel Heidi Klum.
In an interview ahead of his Cape Town concert on Thursday night, Seal wanted some recommendations for local musical talent.
He unlocked his iPhone and scrolled through recently added albums.
“So we’ve got DJ Black Coffee, Bucie, Mafikizolo, DJ Fisherman, NaakMusiQ,” he said. He hit play on DJ Fisherman track “Call Out”, and starts rocking his shoulders along to the beat. A friend gave him the playlist, but there’s something missing from it that Seal is still looking for.
“I’ve heard of this genre of music, called gqom,” he said, struggling to pronounce the “gq” click around his British accent.
Gqom is a newish genre of rough, minimalistic kwaito-house music emerging from young Durban artists.
“That’s the thing that caught my eye,” Seal said. “I want that typical sound, I want the hardcore stuff, the real stuff.”
Seal has visited South Africa once before, a few years ago.
“I always wanted to come back because of the welcome that I get here,” he said. “It’s such a good feeling here, I’m not joking when I say I actually could live here. South Africa is a place where I would raise children.”
Seal reckons South Africa has a lot to teach the rest of the world.
“There is a cultural and racial harmony here that the rest of the world could learn from. I say that with the greatest respect – I’m sure it’s not without its problems – but that’s just what I’m seeing as an outsider.”
He is in the country promoting his 2015 album Seven, which he describes as reflection of the past four years of his life. He performed at GrandWest after packed shows in Johannesburg and Durban.
“I always think that albums are kind of like chapters of a biography – my view of the world, my place in it, things that have happened to me and things that have happened to people that are close to me.”
The tour may focus on his new music, but of course there is that moment in every concert when the intro to “Kiss From a Rose” plays and the crowd goes wild.
“I’m very fortunate to have a song that is a globally recognised, anthemic kind of song,” Seal says. “And I don’t take it lightly; I wish I could write another one!”
Cape Argus