John Legend’s idyllic night at EDP Cool Jazz – NiT
“Portugal, you are my dream”: John Legend’s idyllic night at EDP Cool Jazz
The American was the first artist to play at the Cascais festival since 2019. He was welcomed with open arms and hearts.
Three years later, the Hipódromo Manuel Possolo, in Cascais, was again filled with several thousand people for another edition of EDP Cool Jazz. John Legend was one of the most anticipated names — but, as a matter of reference, the musician himself had long been looking forward to taking to the stage on a regular basis.
“Portugal, you are my dream come true. I have always dreamed of singing on stage for many people,” he said, shortly after having started acting, later accompanied by an extensive band and a three-voice female choir. From tons of magenta, he showed himself to be free, dancing energetically on stage, a genuinely fun moment.
In the audience, the audience collaborated, although not as effusively as you might expect from a concert full of grooves, soaked in gospel, soul, funk or R&B — and some songs, moreover, were entitled to more danceable arrangements. The American arranged a performance with themes such as “Ooh Laa”, “Used To Love U”, “Penthouse Floor” or “Love Me Now”.
In between, impressively, he exchanged words, a lot, and that, a lot, also felt like a story, through which he made his story.
I remembered that he played the piano on “Everything is Everything” on Lauryn Hill’s classic album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”, or “first big record” on which he participated. He illustrated how his friendship and artistic complicity with Kanye West led him to collaborate with Jay-Z on “Encore”, with Estelle on the hit “American Boy”, or with Alicia Keys on “You Don’t Know My Name”.
John Legend also anticipated his next album, which will be released this year, with “Dope” — and later with the new theme “All She Wanna Do”. After changing into a de facto white costume, and already seated at the piano, he performed the iconic “Feeling Good”, a song immortalized by Nina Simone, before paying homage to how his musical roots and gospel grandmother have profoundly influenced him. of “EladLike him” a version of “Trouble Over Water”, by Simon & Garfunkel.
There is no (and there was no lack of songs such as “Ordinary People”, “Save Room”, “Glory”, “Bigger Love” and “Green Light”, and it was given to the very popular) “All Of Me” — which made a finding cell phones and chorus in unison and “Under the Stars”. many others may have made the list, of course.
In a world of ever-faster stimuli, where ephemerality seems to be the only constant, John Legend took love in the form of music — and also his wife, model Chrissy Teigen — to Cascais.
The musician is a true evangelizer of this noble feeling Always with a positive message and a sense of gratitude. And he is a virtuoso artist, with extraordinary talent, with a vision that music is in the service of a greater good. It was a beautiful, pure and romantic concert — which benefited from the sound quality at EDP Cool Jazz — that we all need in a year like this.
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