Written for Kurrent Music
Published June 3rd 2017
Shola Ama blog
I remember having this really cool party week in Amsterdam, somewhere around 1997, that I’ve always loved looking back to. I love going to concerts by well-known artists and in this week I went to three gigs! It was a rare, very good week. I had gotten a little over excited by hearing that r&b singer Ginuwine was coming to Amsterdam, so I got tickets to see both his Amsterdam shows and I would close the week with a concert by Shola Ama, who had just hit the charts with “You Might Need Somebody”.
Ginuwine was a big artist at the time and my expectation was that his concerts would be amazing, but even though I had made it to the front row, the drums were too loud to actually hear him sing. No, the highlight of the week came from the one hit wonder, Shola.
She was amazing live. It was no surprise to me that she was discovered when singing, while she was just going somewhere. I think she was discovered on the street or on a train. During the concert, she didn’t miss a beat or note, vocally, and her songs were easy to catch onto for a first time listener.
