Last Friday, singer Honeybell, and her band held a mini-concert targeted at creating awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) amongst artistes.
The mini-concert, the singer said, centers on the need for artistes to use their various platform to talk about the SDGs, a subject close to her heart.
Held at the interiors of the Thought Pyramid Art gallery in Abuja, the atmosphere was intimate and cozy, as the live music and the contemporary art pieces combined, heightened audience experience of the event, and conversation with the artworks.
Pre-concert performance from the band include an array of Afropop music that had the handful audience bopping to the beat and the rhythm, and seemed a precursor to what the evening had to offer; and the nursery rhymes game relaxed the audience for the evening.
Honeybell kicked-off the performance with love songs, such as Darling, My Baby, Shakara and Time To Draw A Line. The songs ruminate on the experience of ‘a crush’, unrequited love, and toxic relationships, urging those in the latter to take the difficult but healing step of exiting such relations. Time To Draw A Line sound is pop country, whimsical and reminiscent; but the band’s overall sound, is a cross between highlife music and contemporary Afropop. The concert is also inspirational with the song I Am Coming – encouraging young people, distraught by a turbulent and inflation-al economy that though life is not easy, that with consistency one can pull through.
Here, one must commend the camaraderie between the bandmates who have been performing together for nigh on three years. Their energy is a delight, and their joy at practicing their craft evident, particularly with the pianist Obiahu Favour Chinonso, enthusiastic exchanges with bandmates and command of her instrument and swag, stole the show.
The band seems to have also mastered the popular Afro songs to its own peculiar sound, something it equally needs to do with its own original pieces, in addition to knowing when to play soft; because it often times overshadowed Honeybell’s vocals, making it impossible for the audience to hear the lyrics. Consequently, the singer had a hard time hitting the high note, as it comes off like she is pushing her voice a bit higher than necessary to be heard.
The first of such an event by the band, it has a potential as an event that could host other artistes, especially in partnership with events and arts spaces, like it hosted visual artistes Godwin T. Sunday and Oladipo T. Tobe, who both shared with the audience their ongoing experimentation with the SDGs and how they can do so too. Honeybell & Band already have the materials to connect with the audience – stories of love – first crush and unrequited ones, performing experience, and the singer’s genuine appreciation of her audience. She simply needs to focus on emoting her lyrics, then finding deeper yet practical levels of connecting with her audience on the SDGs.
