Durban fans roar for 'Babyface', Kenneth Edmonds

31 August 2015 - 10:28 By NIVASHNI NAIR
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Multiple Grammy Award winner 'Babyface' Edmonds and Toni Braxton (not in the picture) opened the South African leg of their African tour in Durban with a performance from the top drawer last night.
Multiple Grammy Award winner 'Babyface' Edmonds and Toni Braxton (not in the picture) opened the South African leg of their African tour in Durban with a performance from the top drawer last night.
Image: ROGAN WARD

He huffed and puffed and admitted he was tired after his first set, but the roaring applause from his fans confirmed that age had been good to Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds' smooth voice.

The acclaimed music producer, singer and songwriter popularly known as Babyface and Nineties superstar Toni Braxton kicked off their South African tour on the east coast last night (Sunday).

Although he stepped on the stage at Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium an hour late, Edmonds had adoring fans on their feet singing along from the get go.

His fans thought the show couldn’t get any better when he belted out one of his most popular song "Someone to love" but Edmonds then took them on journey down memory lane with award-winning songs that he had written for other artists.

"Ever since I was a little boy I was always falling in love and writing love songs so I decided to sing all those songs I wrote for other people," he said.

When he started singing "Can we talk", a song he wrote for Tevin Campbell, the crowd went wild.

Fans overpowered Edmonds voice when they sang along as he sang songs he had written songs for Boys II Men.

Screaming women stomped their feet and waved their arms in the air when he started to unbutton his shirt.

By the time Edmonds made his way through an ecstatic audience, several fans were crying.

Edmonds and Braxton performed individually and were to meet on the stage together to perform of tracks from their album "Love, Marriage & Divorce", which won the Best R&;B Album award at the Grammys this year.

The duo will perform in Cape Town and Johannesburg this week.     

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