Joss joins Zahara for Mzansi gig

Joss Stone has gone completely bonkers - she's committed to playing a gig in every country on the planet, and her Carnival City concert tonight is only the second stop on her Total World Tour, after a gig in Morocco.

The 26-year-old English soul singer hit the ground running here on Monday night, performing an exclusive set alongside local stars Zahara and Bongeziwe Mabandla at the rooftop bar Randlords.

The set was filmed for possible use in a future tour documentary that will "record the ups and downs, trials and tribulations of this mammoth undertaking", according to a press release.

There's a big possibility that the Spoiled star will again bring on the Afro-folk Zahara and Mabandla at tonight's gig.

Stone set out to collaborate with local homegrown musicians and play indigenous as well as her own songs on each of her stops.

The first leg of the tour also includes Lesotho, Swaziland, Tunisia, Mauritius, Australia and New Zealand. "I like to collaborate with people in general - as many as I can, really," she said at The Maslow Hotel, in Sandton, which she found "quite posh".

"I think that's probably the most beautiful part of music, that we get to share with each other, and even language is not a barrier. It's my favourite thing."

Even with a decade in the industry, a Grammy, several big-name collaborations and six albums under her belt, Stone still gets asked about and compared to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Aretha Franklin. The comparisons began after the release of her debut album, The Soul Sessions, in 2003, at the age of 16.

The comparison was preposterous, she said sheepishly.

"I cannot sing like her at all, not even a tiny smidgen of a bit and that's just the truth. I just like to sing songs that sound soulful and I was emotional in my own way," Stone protested.

But at the beginning of 2007 it happened - she got to perform in front of her idol at an Aretha Franklin tribute gala.

"That was probably the scariest thing I've ever done, ever. She's a big deal to me. I look up to and respect a lot of people, but Aretha, man, she's queen."