South Africa’s singing ambassadors and KZN-based school, the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir, leave with 45 of their top students for their annual national tour today which will take them across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland.

The school will be performing in 10 venues across the country including the University of Pretoria and the Skukuza Auditorium in the Kruger National Park.

Special performances will be held with SA singing sensation Chris Chameleon in the huge theatre of the Sudwala Caves in Mpumalanga.

The show with Chris Chameleon will be titled “In Dreams”.

“The boys are beyond excited to be performing with Chris Chameleon,” said Steven Wellbeloved, the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir tour organiser, when he was asked to comment on the boys’ mood yesterday.

Chameleon is equally excited about performing with the “Drakies” and said it was a childhood dream of his “to be in the Drakies”. “As a child it was always a dream of mine to be in the Drakies, but due to my mom’s circumstances I never could,” Chameleon said.

He said he was amazed by the discipline, joy and level of education of the pupils, “not to mention their heavenly voices”.

“The fact that we’ll be performing our first run in the mystical, natural theatre of the Sudwala Caves in Mpumalanga and that all four performances were sold out in a matter of days, makes it something of the sort of excitement that keeps me awake at night.”

Vryheid will also receive a treat when the Drakies start their tour at the Ikamana Abbey tonight. In this concert the touring choir will be joined by 34 extra boys, who will return to school to carry on with their lessons next week.

The boys, under choirmaster Johann van der Sandt, who used to be professor of choral conducting at the University of Pretoria, will be singing a wide variety of songs including Michael Jackson’s Heal the World, Shosholoza and Hello, Dolly!

The choir, consisting of 11 sopranos, 11 tenors, 11 altos and 12 bassists, with the age of the boys ranging from 12 to 16, may be seen travelling across the country in the school’s new black bus.

Several of the boys are on tour for the first time.

Wellbeloved said: “We expect each concert of the entire tour to be sold out.”

Chelsea Pieterse

Boys' Choir & Chris Chameleon tour

Something to really sing about