South African duo Cherry Pill are back in South Africa after their début international performance at the prestigious Midem festival in Cannes, France. A cosmopolitan group of music industry professionals and music aficionados from around Europe, the Americas and the Far East were given a taste of music from some of the best groups South Africa has to offer at the Imexsa South African showcase on Sunday 7 June at Espace Mimont in the heart of the trendy, taste-making city.
Cherry Pill, whose song Silent Movie was recently chosen by Ford South Africa for their Bands In Transit promotional campaign, were billed alongside other established and up-and-coming South African talents: Bongi & Collin; Maxhoba; One People Band; Tsotso (Word-based productions); DJ Miza; Malondolo and Brenda Mhlongo. The result was a vibrant and uplifting showcase of quality music that spanned the entire range of what is good about South African music.
Cherry Pill opened the second set of the evening, kicking into a stripped-down acoustic groove for My Revolution, punctuated by the soaring refrain of Kristel’s violin solo in the bridge. Next, they charmed the audience with their vocal harmonies in the sing-song chorus of Silent Movie. Bringing their set to an uplifting crescendo, they introduced a new song to the audience, the infectious, pop-infused It Comes To Nothing, ending with a clap-along a cappella chorus before a jangling guitar and violin outro that left the audience cheering the duo on.
Kristel, the violinist and lead vocalist, summed up the event in this way: “We had a fantastic time at Midem. We met some great people and made several contacts who will help us share our passion for music with the rest of the world. We were also really impressed with the standard of the other artists we saw at the festival, particularly those in the new Midem Artist Accelerator programme. A huge thank you to Imexsa and Christophe Chiappa from Reed Midem for their hard work in ensuring that these opportunities are available to performers.”
For more information about Cherry Pill, go to www.cherrypillband.com.
About Midem:
Marché International du Disque et de l’Edition Musicale (Midem) is organised annually in and around the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France. The trade show, which is billed as the leading international business event for the music ecosystem, has been held since 1967. In January 2013, Midem was attended by 6 400 delegates from 3 000 companies (out of which 1 350 had stands or pavilions of their own). The event was covered by 350 international journalists. Although there are attendees from all over the world, the majority of delegates have been from Western Europe and North America. Attendees include performers, journalists, publishers, producers, festival promoters, distributors, entertainment lawyers, industry thought leaders and music technology experts.
