Showtime Productions presents - Whitney Houston - The Greatest Love Of All
Showtime Australia is proud to present THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL – the ultimate tribute to the amazing Whitney Houston.
Showtime has been auditioning around the world and after 12 countries and 15,000 + auditions; the lead role for the show is now South African born Belinda Davids.
Heading up the team will be Showtime CEO and director, John Van Grinsven Snr, Kenny Wizz as Artistic Director and Dale Scheepers as Musical Director.
Belinda was born in Port Elizabeth. She began performing professionally from the age of 14. She has never had vocal training and is blessed with a 4 octave vocal range and the ability to sing any genre – her musical heart has always been R&B. Belinda's musical inspirations as a child were Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan, Donny Hathaway, Michael Jackson and the one artist that she still to this day cannot complete a show without performing one of her songs…Whitney Houston.
As a young girl, one of her very first LP’s she ever owned was a song called Hold Me by Teddy Pendergrass and Whitney Houston. The quality and style Whitney portrayed in this song struck a cord with Belinda and her fascination with the icon grew.
Belinda sang Whitney’s music at every chance; at family gatherings, talent competitions and to friends whilst playing on the street. Like many young girls at that time her room was plastered with posters and cut outs from magazines of the icon. Whitney’s influence was so strong it inspired her from her dress sense to her hairstyles.
As a young woman Belinda had the burning desire to live out her dreams and follow in her idols’ footsteps. She took on the club circuit and started performing in clubs that left many people amazed as to how similar she sounded to the icon. In the mid 90’s Belinda caught the eye of record executives of Tusk Records, which spawned the album “Belinda Davids”. Three of the songs on this album, which Belinda wrote, were released as singles, This I Swear, This Is My Life and We Go Together. The latter was number one for six weeks in South Africa.
Belinda then appeared all over South Africa for a number of years at various hotels, clubs and cabaret’s promoting her album. She opened shows for many international acts when they visited South Africa; Michael Jackson’s History Tour, The Manhattans, The Temptations and Peaches and Herbs. Years after her debut album, Belinda decided to travel abroad to expand her musical career, which took her to Dubai, London and Hong Kong performing in major hotels and clubs with renowned success.
Whilst performing I Will Always Love You at a hotel in Hong Kong, she was requested by the audience to sing acapella as they thought she was lip-syncing to the original Whitney Houston song after which she received a standing ovation.
After many years on the road she finally settled in Los Angeles where she started focusing on getting her solo career back on track. In LA, she collaborated with R&B singer/producer Sam Salter who worked on a couple of her promotional tracks. She also caught the attention of many R&B artists who asked her to perform and tour with them, artists such as Keyshia Cole, Monica, Johnny Gill, Kelly Price and Keri Hilson. She appeared on The Jay Leno Show and The George Lopez Show as a back-up vocalist for Monica.
South African audiences will now be able to see Belinda performing at Joburg Theatre from May 9th to June 2nd. The show will feature a whole host of irresistible classics including Queen of the Night, So Emotional, One Moment in Time, Saving All My Love, I'm Your Baby Tonight, Run to You, I Have Nothing, I Wanna Dance With Somebody and one of the greatest hit songs of all time - I Will Always Love You.
THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL opens on The Mandela stage at Joburg Theatre on May 9th and will run until June 2nd. Ticket prices range from R100 to R250, and are on sale by visiting www.joburgtheatre.com, or by calling the theatre’s direct ticketing line on 0861 670 670.
Discounted rates for groups of ten or more are available by calling the theatre on (011) 877 6853/4.
THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL is brought to you by DSTV in association with Mzansi Magic.