Mampi: The sexy stage queen

There are a few artists worth spending over money for. Mampi, the Zambian sensation, who performed in Malawi last weekend is one of them. Fun lovers have already said the two shows Mampi held in Lilongwe were not enough.

The former Big Brother Stargame participant performed at New Mungo Park and Tilipano at Lumbadzi where her impressive performances left people wanting more.

At Mungo, the show started on a bad note. The sound kept going on and off and the first artist, Kaka, simply did not fit with the audience until he started comic mimicking local artists including San B, Lucius Banda, Mlaka Maliro, Skeffa Chimoto and Billy Kaunda.

The equipment failures were, however, compensated by the surprise introduction of Lucius Banda, who is normally the last to play. He joked that he was going to be a curtain-raiser to the “new generation as I grow old.”

Lucius’s performance gave way to Lulu, whose sing alongs changed the tempo until 11.15pm when Malawi’s top secular female artist Wendy Harawa appeared on stage, revitalising the booty-shaking sessions that Mampi dominated with from around midnight.

Then two girls dressed in slashed pink jeans appeared on stage as the instrumental signature tuneWaillowelelawelcomed Mampi. Born Miriam Makupe, Mampi was dressed in black and red short dress with a shiny small jacket.

“Waillowelela means you are sweet, so sweet, but we will dance to that later. Let’s go into warming up,” she said.

With the two dancers on her side, Mampi dished at least seven songs non-stop, changing the stage work and joining in the dance, something unusual in Malawi.

She had a powerful voice that made her sound like a CD play. Yet it was Zembani Band with Sam Simakweli on lead that backed her as if they were part of the original composers of the songs.

The climax came at 1am when she excused herself to change. The audience were in for a memorable night.

The dance was extra-ordinary, fusing kwaito, rhumba, kwasa-kwasa and hip dances to what only Mampi can describe. Only one Malawian gentleman took the challenge to dance with the two dancing queens, he was given a CD for his splendid performance.

Mampi danced, shook and sang like a possessed girl. However, she delivered her killer dance when she did asomersault and danced with her head down, legs up and her torso shaking like an acrobat hired from China.

The two dancers were wild, they could climb as high as the stage poles and dance with one hand from there. Mampi left the stage with her back on the floor doing a snake dance, an exit that was classy.

On Sunday, the craze of Mampi’s performance saw dozens flock to Tilipano, where the dancers could go as high as the speakers and other climbable places and shake their torsos in the air.

It was something, fun-seekers will remember for many years to come!