Balaka-based musical group Alleluya Band over the weekend performed at the World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, where they had two shows.
World Youth Day is an event for young people organised by the Catholic Church that was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985.
The group, which is on its annual Italy tour, delivered an impressive performance during the gathering that attracted a huge audience and was presided over by Pope Francis.
“It was a successful event and we are just happy that we managed to sell Malawi through our performance which had a fusion of our different traditional dances such as Beni and Malipenga,” Paul Subili, who is the group’s band leader, said.
He said before their performance in Portugal, they also made visits to France and Spain.
The group has since returned back to Italy, where they have so far held 28 concerts out of the targeted 40.
Alleluya Band left the country on June 12 2023 and is expected back next month.
“We started these trips in 2000 and they have helped a lot in construction of schools and hospitals at Andiamo in Balaka,” Subili said.
Meanwhile, Madalitso Band, the duo of Yobu Maligwa and Yosefe Kalekeni from the outskirts of Mtandire in Lilongwe, which is also on a world tour, has so far held close to 30 concerts in Europe.
The duo alongside their international manager Neil Nayar also left the country in June 2023 and will go as far as United States of America (USA) where they will perform for the first time.
“We were recently in Portugal where Madalitso performed at one of the famous festivals where some big names in Africa such as Mali’s Salif Keita and Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi have performed. So, Madalitso Banda have added their name to the list of African artists,” Nayar said.
He said after their exploits in other European countries such as Portugal, France and Hungary, they would be heading to England where they will hold 23 shows before heading to USA.
The group, whose global feat is huge following their power-packed performances in five European tours since 2017, is expected to perform in close to 11 countries, staging close to 80 shows.
Nayar said this is the group’s longest tour and that they will be back in Malawi in October.
Armed with an acoustic guitar and the one-stringed guitar known as Babatoni that has conquered people’s hearts with its sound, Madalitso has remained faithful to their identity of authentic music that zeroes in on issues such as love and corruption.
Madalitso Band has two albums to their credit namely Fungo La Nyemba and Wasalala.
