Whitney: The Concert for a New South Africa

The Whitney - The Concert for a New South Africa was the title of three concerts which American singer Whitney Houston performed in South Africa to honor President Nelson Mandela and to celebrate a newly unified South Africa in November 1994.^[1]

History

Houston's first ever performances in Durban, Nov. 8 and final one in Cape Town on Nov. 19, set the stage for her much anticipated HBO televised performance on Nov. 12 at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. These would make her the first major musician to visit the newly unified and apartheid free nation following Mandela's winning election.^[2] Houston performed to crowd of over 200,000 people in a special series of South African concerts. The concert satellited live from Johannesburg, was released on VHS in December, 1994.^[1] All proceedes from the concerts was donated by Whitney Houston and her foundation to carefully selected South African children's charities including two children's museums, the President's Trust Fund (for the freed Nelson Mandela), the Kagiso Foundation and several orphanages.^[1][3]

Set list

1. "Love's In Need of Love Today"
2. "So Emotional"
3. "Saving All My Love for You"
4. "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"
5. "How Will I Know"
6. Love Song Medley:
   • "I Love You"
   • "All at Once"
   • "Where You Are"
7. "Lover for Life"
8. "My Name Is Not Susan"
9. "Queen of the Night"
10. "I Have Nothing"
11. "Touch the World" (performed with Cissy Houston and the choir)
12. "Love Is"
13. "Amazing Grace"
14. "Master Blaster (Jammin')"
15. "I Will Always Love You"
16. "I'm Every Woman"
17. "Greatest Love of All"
18. "Home"
19. "I'm Every Woman (Reprise)"

Personnel

• Musical Director: Rickey Minor
• Bass guitar/Bass synthesizer: Rickey Minor
• Guitars: Paul Jackson, Jr.
• Keyboards: Bette Sussman, Wayne Linsey, Joe Wolfe
• Drums: Michael Baker
• Percussions: Bashiri Johnson
• Saxophones/EWI: Kirk Whalum, Gary Bias
• Trumpet: Michael "Patches" Stewart, Oscar Brashear
• Trombone: George Bohanon
• Background Vocalists: Olivia McClurkin, Alfie Silas, Pattie Howard
• Dancers: Carolyn Brown, Merlyn Mitchell, Shane Johnson, Saleema Mubaarak
• Little girls dancers: Fajaliah Harper, Vanity Ramdhan, Sylvia Enriquez, Mistey Ramdhan, Mercedez Demus

References

1. "South Africa 1994". allwhitney.com. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
2. Paeth, Greg (November 9, 1994). ""HBO Worth seeing"". Cincinnati Post. pp. 7B.
3. "List of Whitney Houston charity works". whitney-fan.com. Retrieved 2009-09-26.