Pongo - NNF 2024
Pongo came, Pongo sang, Pongo danced, and Pongo conquered.
It is Friday night at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and the start of the weekend. The Festival Gardens are filling up, and the crowds are being entertained by local trio Jack and The Giants on the Band Stand, whilst the two bars and the pizza tent are doing brisk business. The evening's show from South American circus troupe Circocolumbia has just finished, and the lively buzz of the 'Festival vibe' is infectious.
By half past nine the queues for the late evening show in the Adnams Spiegeltent is beginning to form. We have our tickets scanned, we have our hands stamped and we wait. And we wait, And we wait. And, just like the previous evening's performance of Lucy & Friends, the show's 22.00 start time comes and goes, and we are still queuing. Finally, at half past ten, we are allowed to enter the Spiegeltent ready for the show.
Engracia Domingos da Silva (aka Pongo) is an Angolan-Portuguese singer, born in Luanoa, Angola in 1992. Having escaped with her family to Portugal during the Angolan civil war, Engracia was given the name Pongo by her father, a reference to the famous Congolese singer M'Pongo Love. When she grew older she joined Kuduro rap group Denon Squad, and took the stage name Pongolove. Now shortened to just Pongo, she is appearing live at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, together with her band and dancers.
Pongo's music is an infectious blend of Caribbean zouk, Brazilian beats and Angolan kuduro (Portuguese for 'kick-ass'). It is up-tempo, energetic and very, very danceable. Which is just what tonight's audience have come for, and soon the Adnams Spiegeltent floor is a lively mass of Friday night booty-shaking revellers, all up for a good time.
The band itself consists of a live drummer, sat behind a fairly conventional kit – a bit of a disappointment for anyone expecting an array of traditional African drums, and a backing singer who also seems to be in charge of what appears to be a backing track enhanced with extra bass, bells and whistles to beef up the beat. Perhaps a bit of a disappointment for fans of live African music, especially as we have seen so many fine live acts performing recently at venues like Norwich Arts Centre.
However, perhaps I am being too much of a purist here, and maybe I should just be letting my hair down, and getting into the groove, along with everyone else.
And get into it they do, hardly needing any encouragement from Pongo's two lively back-up dancers, so that, when asked up onto the stage to dance, there is no shortage of volunteers. In fact, after their five minutes of fame they seem almost reluctant to leave the stage.
It is a favour that Pongo happily returns, leading her own dancers into the middle of the dancefloor for the closing couple of songs, the whole of the Adnams Spiegeltent now a jumping mass of bodies, and with that thumping beat working its way right to the very core of our bodies.
Yes, Pongo came, Pongo sang, Pongo danced, and Pongo conquered.
Shame about the late starts to these 10 o'clock shows – not so important perhaps for those folks who don't have to go to work in the morning, but for anyone relying on public transport to get home it might be prudent to have a think about your plan-B if you are buying tickets for any of the late-evening one-hour shows at the Adnams Spiegeltent.
