Event information
The 2025 'An Intimate Evening' Concert Series sees three top-tier acts performing in dramatically different settings.
In a one night-only celebration of Nina Simone and Miriam Makeba, Simphiwe Dana and Jeremiah Abiah take to the stage at Montecasino’s Teatro in Johannesburg. There are few performers worldwide better suited to pay tribute to the ‘High Priestess of Soul’, Nina Simone, and the beloved ‘Mama Africa’, Miriam Makeba.
Ghanian-American Jeremiah Abiah meets a high bar, being a natural selection for Nina Simone's tribute. Renowned as a vocal coach and a former Associate Professor of Voice at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Abiah worked on the Netflix documentary 'What Happened, Miss Simone?' and released the acclaimed album 'Abiah Sings Nina' in 2018.
In the book, 'A Renegade Called Simphiwe', authored by Pumla Dineo Gcola, Simphiwe Dana has been complimented as, “the best thing to happen to Afro-Soul music since Miriam Makeba”, making her an easy choice for the Miriam Makeba tribute.
Like Makeba, Simphiwe’s output includes proud references to her Xhosa culture, an Afrocentric identity that extends its appeal beyond South Africa’s borders and far into the wider world and a political conscience that refuses to shy away from incisive commentary.
