I did meet him once in London in the summer of 2008 though. Nelson Mandela was turning 90 and 46664 was the number on everyone’s lips. I didn’t get to see the special commemoration concert in Hyde Park, but I did see some behind the scene action at the Intercontinental London where the SA artists were staying. I was there to interview Johnny Clegg ahead of his London shows the following month, and while chatting to the Clegg crew, we saw and met Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse (who did that cool hand shake grip-squeeze-grip thing) as well as Afrikaans artist, Kurt Darren.
My first impression was one of awe. In awe of his height that is, which I now know is a whopping 1.92 metres, as I am a tall girl at 1.85m. The second moment of wow, was when his blue eyes radiated into my core as he shook my hand with a firm ‘aangename kennis’.
Nearly two years later, and Kurt is returning to the UK – to headline Afrikhaki at the Clapham Grand on 9 April. Not knowing much about him, I realised I would need to delve into all things Kurt Darren and get to grips with this meisie meisie man who apparently mesmerises woman, from school girls to old grannies. I needed to understand how it is that he sells albums and concerts so effortlessly amidst a time when devoted artist loyalty is so rare to find.
I began my research on YouTube, what better place to start than with a live video of the man doing what he does best. I chose the first English song I saw. Entitled Sunday, it was off his latest English album Smiling Back At Me. The opening line spoke to me as Kurt’s voice soothed, ‘She’s one in a million, she’s out of my league. What is a simple guy like me to do?’
As the spell of Kurt seemed to inconspicuously suck me into his world of love ballads and lyrics, I started googling to find out if this guy could possibly be as nice as his pretty boy looks and vocal talents.
As I was researching, I was also half G-chatting to my 12 year old cousin online, discussing school and what she was doing for homework. She then asked me out of the blue, ‘BTW – have you ever interviewed Kurt Darren?’ I replied, ‘Funny you ask… I will be interviewing him soon because he is coming to London.’ Her reply was simple, yet in itself quite a statement – ‘COOL’.
Yip, I got the capital letter approval of a 12 year old! I asked her what songs of his she liked, and she said ‘whatever he sings when I see him on TV’. This intrigued me further… how a young English-speaking girl is seemingly super impressed by an Afrikaans oujtie. I googled some more, starting at wikipedia (which is very weak and low on any interesting info on Kurt), before jumping to his ‘webwerf’ where I selected ‘English’ to enter the site. Before launching into the details of his career, he had a short and simple message on the home page which said that his new album had been launched, followed by ‘Kurt would just like to thank each and everyone one of you for your continued support and all the positive feedback regarding the new CD.’
Wow – could it be that he is actually a nice guy as well as a platinum-selling artist?
I clicked further to discover his discography and biography. And that’s when I realised just how perfect we are for each other! His favourite pastimes as well as his likes and dislikes were just so similar to many of mine, that it seemed too good to be true. How can someone like as many of the same things as me I wondered? Last on his ‘Like’ list was avocados, as though he’d almost forgotten how important they are in his life, but added it in because they are that important. (I understand this like no other!) Also on the list which would also be on mine were Eddie Izzard, red wine, CHEESE, mashed potatoes, TRAVELING and the colour blue! (Since watching Avatar, I am strangely obsessed with all sorts of things blue. Like Kurt’s eyes. And the subtle blue added accent of colour on his otherwise neutral tone website.) He has listed many tropical locations in his list of ‘to name a few places I’ve been’, such as Mauritius, Florida, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Mozambique and Madagascar. Since it is one of my dreams to live under a palm tree one day, it seems this might be of interest to him too!
Alas, we don’t agree on everything. Like the best flavour of Energy Bars (as caramel nut beats rum ‘n raisin anyday!), but I see this as a good thing – because he will never eat my last one, nor me his.
Now there is still quite a bit I need to learn about my Kurtie, like his favourite movie Gladiator, which I haven’t watched. But I figure since its his favourite, this isn’t really a problem, because we will probably watch it together some time. Maybe it could even be our first date?
I also was a bit worried that he’s an Aquarius… cos I’m a Leo. Fire and water. But that’s all nonsense anyway! We have so much else in common. Like his life motto ‘Life is a journey, enjoy the ride’. And, he said that if he wasn’t a singer, he would have been a vet or a game ranger. Swooon. Oh a man who loves animals as much as me! (If he loves cats specifically, it will be fate!)
Now all I need to do is meet him, my majestic man, my seuntjie seuntjie, my Kurtie! He will be in London on 9 April, at Afrikhaki – but alas, I shall not be here as I will be in South Africa from mid March to end April! You can imagine my distress at not being able to see him again now that I know how perfect we are!
I then spotted that the South African Music Awards are happening on 17 April when I’m in SA. And since I know my Kurtie will def be nominated, I just know that he will be there at Sun City to pick up an award for his amazing work! I will just have to be his date – his one in a milion! (I’ll pack a special dress just in case!) And if so, I wont mind postponing our first movie date and making this our debut date of fate!
And this is when it suddenly dawned on me – the one thing I don’t yet know about this strapping six foot hunk of a musical man is whether he has a meisie meisie already as ‘deel van sy lewe’. And so began more googling…
