VW Polo Vivo launch - a musical extravaganza featuring Kelly Clarkson, Westlife, Parlotones...

The new VW Polo Vivo was unveiled recently at Sun City. The night was a musical extravaganza, and featured international acts Kelly Clarkson and Westlife, with performances by local acts - The Parlotones, Freshly Ground, TKZee, Soweto Gospel Choir and Big Nuz. Adam Howard of Howard Music was Musical Director for the event, and conducted the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra.

The event company Blue Moon commissioned Adam Howard to oversee all music requirements for the event. The client wanted an orchestra for the event and commissioned a musical overture, featuring certain tracks that would be heard throughout the evening's performances.

“I arranged a medley of music that was performed by the orchestra. The Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and Howard Music have a close relationship, and do numerous corporate events together, where I arrange and compose music for an event and conduct the orchestra. I also produce high quality backtracks, using live players. This allows us to get a big full sound even if budget can't stretch to hiring a full symphony orchestra,” says Howard.

The first hour of the event featured some of South Africa's biggest music stars with Big Nuz and Freshly Ground kicking off the evening's festivities. Adam wrote arrangements for the orchestra, and the Soweto Gospel Choir also featured in a performance of "I'd like" by Freshlyground.

Adam said, “After a few more collaborations with TKZee, we came to the car reveal section of the event. Blue Moon had commissioned an original piece to be composed for the reveal of the cars. The brief was for the music to have a sense of expectation, and to also showcase various elements of show. We had a solo section, where we featured Kyla (violinist from Freshly Ground) and Jethro Butow (guitarist for the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra).

“The whole theme for the launch was ‘So Much To Celebrate'. I used the Soweto Gospel Choir to build up the climax singing these words as a refrain. Finishing the segment with Zolani from Freshlyground and Zwai Bala of TKZee, we went straight from that into the Parlotones ‘Louder Than Bombs', as the new Polo Vivo was dropped slowly from the roof of the Superbowl. Quite a sight! I arranged music for the orchestra and Soweto Gospel Choir to finish off the reveal. This was the end of the event from our side. We then all enjoyed the performances of Kelly Clarkson, The Parlotones and Westlife!”

Click here to view the reveal section of the VW Polo Vivo launch.