Hot acts lined up for this year’s Lusito Land Festival
Visitors to this year’s Lusito Land Festival can look forward to an incredible line-up of music by some of the country’s most talented artists including AKA, Sketchy Bongo, The Parlotones, Mi Casa, Bobby van Jaarsveld, Snotkop, Matthew Mole, Lady Zamar, GoodLuck, Shekhinah, Dr Victor & The Rasta Rebels.
Image Courtesy Lusito Association
The performers will take to the stage between 15 April and 6 May at the festival’s new venue in Cayman Road, Alewynspoort, Johannesburg South, providing superb entertainment at a festival that promises to be an exceptional celebration of food, music and fun.
Lusito Association spokesperson, Noemia Contente, says the festival is so much more than a celebration of Portuguese cuisine and culture.
“This is our 37th year and we are more committed than ever to ensuring everyone in the family has an incredible time. This year’s line-up has been carefully selected to cover a wide range of musical genres to cater for every taste.”
South African indie rock band, The Parlotones, is sure to enthral rock fans. Their early sound was rooted Brit rock but has grown to incorporate various musical genres with lyrics focusing on personal themes of love and everyday life.
Johannesburg-based house band, Mi Casa, was founded in early 2011. Soon afterwards, they released an album entitled Mi Casa Music, which quickly went gold, winning several awards at the 18th Annual MTN South Africa Music Awards in 2012. In 2015 they returned with double disc album ‘Home Sweet Home’. Their most recent studio album is ‘Familia’, released in August 2017.
Another popular band to take the stage at this year’s festival is reggae and rhythm and blues band, Dr Victor & The Rasta Rebels. With several albums under their belts, this band became a household name in the 1990s and continues to enthral audiences with their energetic performance today.
Bobby van Jaarsveld is a South African Afrikaans-language pop singer-songwriter and actor, who started his professional singing career in high school. He won the award for Best Newcomer at the Huisgenoot Tempo Awards in 2006 and recorded his first album, 'n Duisend Ure, in the same year. His second album, Net Vir Jou, was released in 2009, reaching platinum status in just eight weeks. Two additional albums, Wat Geld Nie Kan Koop Nie and Maak 'n Wens, were recorded in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
Also on the festival line-up is one of South Africa’s top selling Afrikaans artists, Francois Henning, better known as Snotkop, He started his musical career with demo CDs at 15 and adopted the stage name ‘Lekgoa’, performing as a kwaito musician in the late 1990s. In 2005 he became Snotkop, initially as part of a four-piece boy band, and then as a solo recording artist, launching his self-titled debut album in 2005. This was followed by So Damn Sexy in 2008, Francois Henning Was Hier in 2009 and Ek Laaik Van Jol in 2012.
Cape Town artist, Matthew Mole, who describes his musical style as ‘folk with an electronic backbone’, won the Converse Get Out Of The Garage competition. His prize was a gig in London's 100 Club and a recording session at Converse's studio in New York. He then signed to Just Music and released his second EP Same Parts, Same Heart in December 2012.
South African electronic music band, GoodLuck, was selected to open for Pharrell Williams, as a part of his world tour in September 2015. This highly successful band has performed in Amsterdam, Berlin and London, recording their second album, Creatures of the Night, in the Namibian Desert. In October 2015, they released their single Back In The Day through dance label, Armada.
Lady Zamar, who enjoyed a meteoric rise on the music scene in 2016 and 2017 is expected to delight audiences with her sensual vocals, singing hits songs such as Charlotte, Criminal, Love is Blind and My Baby.
Another young songstress expected to wow festival-goers is Durban-born singer-songwriter, Shekhinah, who will perform songs off her debut album Rose Gold. She was among the Top 32 of MNET's Season 7 of SA Idols in 2011 and the Top 6 of Season 8 in 2012.
Another Durban-based performer, Sketchy Bongo, who wears a signature ski-mask, is sure to get audiences hyped with his special brand of hip-hop pop and house music. Born Yuvir Pillay in 1989), he has worked with artists such as AKA, Da Les, Shekinah, and Aewon Wolf. He is also the only South African producer to have his own feature on MTV Base.
And then there’s South African hip hop recording artist and record producer, AKA. His incredible music career has seen him make it to number one on the South African 5FM Top 40 with Do It and win Metro FM Music Awards for ‘Best Newcomer’, ‘Best Hip Hop’ as a solo act and ‘Best Produced Album’ for his debut Altar Ego. This saw him dubbed the ‘Prince of South African Rap’ by one of the national newspapers. In 2011, his song Victory Lap won Channel O's Most Gifted Hip-Hop Video. He was also awarded ‘Male Artist of the Year’ and ‘Best Street Urban Music Album’ at the 18th South African Music Awards.
