Maria Bethania – Royal Festival Hall
July 17th, 2010
What a wonderful presence on stage this woman has. I saw her live in Salvador da Bahia at the Centro de Convenciones in 1990 (Teatro Castro Alves was closed for refurbishment in 1989/90), that’s a long time ago and tonight at the RFH she had lost none of her stage presence. Three drum kits on stage, all being played simultaneously, two guitars and keyboards. The photo above I got from Google but that was the stage set she used, the roses theme.
There was no interval, she sang for about two hours in total, she sang the song I’d been waiting for, Reconvexo, at the end of the show before the encores. The last encore song was a samba, the whole audience was on its feet and dancing, what an atmosphere. The Festival of Brazil was a wonderful series of events for London to host.