Kabelo Eric performs in a pre-World Cup event

GASEBALWE SERETSE
Staff Writer | Thursday June 3, 2010 00:00

Although the team, which included Showtime arrived late at the small South African city, Kabelo Eric and his backing vocalists were able to perform at the event dubbed Limpopo Pre-World Cup Gospel Show. Surprisingly, despite the fact that the concert featured big names in South Africa, it was poorly attended and one could only guess it was because of the cold. As expected, most of the revellers had already caught the FIFA World Cup fever as a good number of them were wearing the Bafana Bafana jerseys in support of their national team. Unlike in most Botswana concerts, the South Africans used live bands, which made their acts more entertaining.

Unfortunately for Kabelo Eric, he was forced by circumstances to use backtracks which most certainly did not work to his advantage as the sound did not come out clearly - a fault that lay entirely with the sound people. However, the local lad tried by all means to give his all despite this challenge. 'My act could have been better had I used a live band  but it was really hard to bring a band because it could have meant incurring more costs,' said Kabelo Eric who is under Otukile Entertainment managed by Lerato Otukile. The artist added that he was happy about the exposure that he gets when performing outside the country. Zwivisto Company organised the event. It was not the first time for Kabelo Eric to perform in the neighbouring country as he had been invited to perform twice by gospel songbird, Winnie Mashaba.  Early this year, he went to South Africa to perform during the launch of Mashaba's latest album.

The youthful singer from Sikwane in Kgatleng District broke onto the music scene with the release of his debut album, titled Jutase wa Mosekariota and he has steadily earned the adoration of hundreds of gospel fans across the country. At the beginning of his career, he worked with another gospel star, Tebbie Sethomo while she was promoting her debut DVD that included the hit song, Maleo ame.

According to Kabelo Eric's manager, Lerato Otukile, Jutase Wa Mosekariota, which was released in 2007, has been receivaing a lot of airplay on both radio and TV, especially during popular gospel programmes.

His new album titled Oh Modimo was released in April this year and it is also reportedly doing well on the market.It remains to be seen if this artist will rise to be one of Botswana's greatest exports as he gets more international exposure.