Lawi learns from US trip
Musician Lawi has described his performance in the USA as successful as he and his band Mango performed at heavily parked venues.
The Malawian community in Washing DC invited Lawi with his Mango Band, alongside Maskal together with two fashion designers, Lilly Alfonso and Mwai Namaona of Nzika Wear as key performers at events celebrating Malawi’s 50th independence celebrations from July 4 to 6.
It was the first time that Lawi, born Francis Phiri performed outside Malawi with his band, an eight piece group he established in December last year.
“We had two performances; one at the Fillmore Theatre and the other one at Scotfitsgerald theatre. These are two major venues in the US.
The Fillmore hosts big artists only and it was humbling for us to perform on that stage and we filled the venue to more than capacity. On July 22 John Legend will perform on the same stage.
“It was quite a challenge because it meant a lot of different things, audience, environment, competition. So we had to bring our A game. And we did our best and the response was great with a great turnout at both venues. It was an eye opener as it helped refresh the dream I have. Our host were very well organised and that made it real easy for us,” said the soft spoken artist.
Lawi said at both venues, other nationalities graced the shows, a thing that was so rejuvenating.
“We had our ambassador to the US there and he came with fellow ambassadors from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and other countries. It was great to see them come celebrate the big day with us.
“It was a symbol of African unity as there were lots of people from different countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Italy, Germany, USA, Japan and many more. It was colourful,” he said.
At the two shows, Lawi was dressed by Alfonso while Nzika wear dressed the Mango band.
Meanwhile, the international window is further beckoning Lawi for shows in Europe.
“We are currently talking to a few people who would like to have us in Europe. We are in the early stage of the discussion at the moment. But we are talking to people in Italy and the UK,” he said.
