Congo Vibes

Music => Congolese Music => Topic started by: Mfumu Vata on February 08, 2025, 23:21

Title: 25 Years of Academia's first LSC (05/02/2000-05/02/2025)
Post by: Mfumu Vata on February 08, 2025, 23:21

I forgot to post about it last wednesday. But it was 25 years ago that Academia performed at LSC in Paris' suburb Saint Denis. The event was organised to celebrate the 1st anniversary of their creation. It was also the first big event Congolese event of the new millenium in Europe. Academia had already a massaive succes in Kinshasa with their concerts, doing something that many Europe-based bands failed to do, but they hadn't performed in Paris yet. Them performing in a sold-out LSC, made them earn even more respect. Their concert would for a long time being cited as a reference, when the polemic about LSC-shows started, later that year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ime3CIwII8g

I couldn't find better videos, because the full version uploaded by INA Congo got deleted some years ago.

About the show, it was orginally meant that they would bring "Ba phrase correcte" (the 7 dancers they recruited in Kinshasa) to Paris. But it didn't happen, despite putting their names on the poster. Instead of them, Europe-based dancers went to dance for them. Academia invited Bozi Boziana as their main-guest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8imEuffbC5w&t=11s

The concert would get released as volume 1  of the cassette "Kimpwaka Aleyi Jocker" (volume 2 being the event at La Madeleine in Brussels). The VHS sold as crazy and some extracts would get used in movies of the groups 'Les Simba' (of Elombé, Bodo and Lipati) and 'Swabala' of comedian Siatula, to promote a show planned in UK (Totteham) for June 2000, which ended up by getting cancelled.

There was some polemic when the cassette came out, because of Bouro Mpela wearing the same hat, that Koffi weared in the Attentat-generique. Also it has been said that one of the singers lost his voice, which made the show started a bit later.

Title: Re: 25 Years of Academia's first LSC (05/02/2000-05/02/2025)
Post by: Mfumu Vata on February 09, 2025, 17:07

It's crazy how a random hall in Saint-Denis used to have so much meaning for our music (also gospel), even more than halls like Le Bataclan, La Cigale, Elysee Montmartre and co. It became at some point also a batormeter to test popularity. So much historic concerts has taken place there from the late 1980s till mid 2005.

Till this day, I wonder who the rhythm-player was that used to play next to Mike Evian