The International Festival of Carthage
55th session
» 100 Voices of Gospel »
Sunday August 04. 2019
The Roman Theater of Carthage
The Roman Theater of Carthage was illuminated on Sunday August 04. 2019 with the Stars of the “100 Voices of Gospel” band. Gospel lovers were amazed by this spiritual music celebrating love peace and serenity. Composed of vocalists and musicians representing 25 different nationalities, this choir and musicians were gathered in 1998 during the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in France. But fortunately, they continued performing as their experience has gone through time transforming this choir into a professional Gospel troupe with seven albums and countless tours around the world. And it was in front of a crowded theater that magnificent troupe performed the immense register of the American musical heritage and played the best songs invoking the supreme love and preaching fraternity between men and women whatever their identity was.
All dressed in white, conquering the huge stage of the Roman theater of Carthage, the choir immediately took the audience into the wonderful kingdom of gospel with « We’ve come to praise » followed by « Matthieu 28”, “Sweeping”, “Whatever you want”, “Amazing grâce”, “I’m not forgotten” “This little light of mine” and others. It was then time to the great American vocalists All Sanders, Dale Blade, Jean Carpenter and Tiffany Andrews to amaze the crowd with the best of their songs reproducing the dancing gesture of preachers with an amazing simplicity and a deep strength.
In a didactic approach, Jean Carpenter talked with the audience several times with her “Rock” voice inviting them to sing with her, explaining that gospel is a universal spiritual singing that aims to bring people closer around the values of peace and love. The audience did not hesitate to share that beautiful energy with the vocalists and musicians with a great joy.
What was really significant during the show is undoubtedly the great capacity of this troupe to popularize this extraordinary art that found the right way to get adapted to the social mutations and to continue again and again to make the great happiness of its pioneers and its lovers. This power of adaptation has been translated on stage by surprising choreographies, loaded with metaphors about freedom of the body and beyond the body the soul, the matrix of life, emotions, and consciousness.
Also modern dances, because today’s gospel comes in several pop styles, RNb, Hip Hop, reggae and others, in the diversity of communities and ethnic groups. This is why, moreover, the troupe “Gospel for 100 Voices” gathers more than 24 nationalities: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists as if to say that the message of love and fraternity is universal, beyond differences.
But the show could not have been perfect without the participation of the great Al Sanders, an emblematic figure of the American black music and a great Gospel singer who performed songs from the classical gospel repertoire with his velvet tenor voice that wonderfully reminded us about the famous American singers who have engraved their names in the annals of this prestigious Festival.
The songs and the dances took turns in an amazing rhythm in two parts of the show captivating a savvy and enchanted audience. Malik Young from New Jersey, Junior Mulongo from Congo, Dale Blade from New Orleans, Heredia Koffi and Dominique Magloire from Guadeloupe were the masters of this universal prayer ceremony invoking love in its pure form.
It was a show of a great artistic style that confirmed that the importance that gives the International Festival of Carthage is a space of convergence, openness and fraternity.
