With their brand new production "Bring It On!" the world's most successful gospel show came back to the Alte Oper yesterday. Together with the Harlem Gospel Singers, Queen Esther Marrow (73) provided pure joie de vivre and several goose bumps. In the almost two-hour program the audience was not only offered early spirituals and classical gospel, but also soul, pop and rhythm & blues songs. Right at the beginning Queen Esther Marrow provided a very special emotional highlight of the evening with a wonderful homage to Joe Cocker ("You are so beautiful"). A medley of Stevie Wonder's hits also caused a storm of enthusiasm. And even a song from "High School Musical" ("We're all in this together") was transformed into a real power anthem by the powerful vocal ensemble. The evening was a great plea for optimism and humanity, filled with strong voices and great emotions. Sitting quietly in one's seat was almost impossible.
Alongside the music, this year was once again about a good cause: each ticket sold for the entire "Bring It On!" tour in Germany benefits one euro for the international aid organisation. At the end of the show, the proceeds of this great campaign were handed over to "Doctors Without Borders" in the form of a donation cheque by Queen Esther Marrow, Antonia and Marius Brenner. He was accepted on behalf of the aid organisation by Doctor Andreas Ewen, who was himself active in the Central African Republic for "Doctors without Borders" in 2012. As a small surprise there was a second cheque, handed over by two trainees of BB Promotion, who used their Christmas party for a spontaneous fundraising campaign.
The concert was concluded by the classic "Oh Happy Day", in which all singers and musicians were in top form again and brought the big hall of the Alte Oper to the boil. No wonder that more than once you could hear from enthusiastic spectators when they went out: "Next year we are guaranteed to be there again! Further information can be found at Www.bb-promotion.com and www.theharlemgospelsingers.de
