American singer and songwriter Kip Moore is still reminiscing about the time he has spent performing in South Africa.
The multi-platinum-selling musician took to the stage as part of his “Nomad World Tour” at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria earlier this month as well as at the Cape Town Country Festival at DHL over the weekend.
The “Hey Pretty Girl” hitmaker also performed in the country last year, entertaining over 40 000 fans.
When asked why he decided to include Mzansi as part of his world tour, he explained: “Well, I mean after last year seeing how incredible the fan base was here, I don't know if I've ever had such a tangible, palatable electricity in the air so I was just determined to get back here as soon as I could so when they asked me to come back, it was kind of a no brainer for me.”
In regards to his Gauteng concert, he described it as “very special.”
“Walking out and seeing that stadium full for the first time, the gregarious smiles on people's faces is something that is imprinted in my mind forever.”
On what surprised him the most about performing in the country, he said: “I guess just being this far away from home and songs that I write in the dark, usually sitting at my kitchen counter or out on my back porch, writing these songs in the dark where nobody's around, coming this far away and there's an entire stadium singing them, it's kind of hard to explain to somebody how special that is.”
Apart from his shows, Moore also took some time to enjoy what the nation has to offer.
“We went to the Kruger National Park which has been a bucket list of mine since I was probably 16,” he said.
I was obsessed with encyclopaedias and looking at Kruger National Park when I was a kid, so to get to experience that as well as vineyards was amazing.” He added: “I drink a lot of South African wine, so I had a really good time with that.”
He added: “I drink a lot of your wine, so I had a really good time with that.”
Moore is also a fan of local sounds.
“I love the rhythmic percussion of South African music and one of my favourite artists, Paul Simon, was super inspired from this region and so it’s a love affair from me with the music here.”
As one of the US’s biggest country artists, Moore fuses grudge-tinged rock n’ roll into his music.
His latest hit “Live Here to Work” has been a resounding success since it was released last month.
The renowned musician broke into the industry in 2012 and has since released five critically acclaimed albums and has written over a dozen chart-topping singles, including “Something”, “Bout a Truck”, “Beer Money” and ”'More Girls Like You”.
With over 1 billion streams and 2.5 million monthly listeners, he’s performed sold-out headline shows in stadiums around the world including Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US, among others, leading to a nomination for CMA’s International Artist Achievement Award.
He has also taken his “Nomad World Tour” around the US as well as to Australia.
“I'm sitting in more gratitude than I think I ever have in my career,” he said.
“Coming off the Australian run, it was sold out arenas and then coming here and seeing how massive this international thing is getting, it's just gratitude for me right now.”
Moore added that his career highlight so far is the current leg of his world tour.
“It was incredible to see how big the fan base is getting in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.”
“We've already broken in Europe and England and so we kind of know what to expect when we go there and Ireland, but like seeing how rapidly it's growing here, that's the icing on the cake.”
On what his fans can expect from him in the coming months, Moore said: “They can expect an announcement for a new record very soon.”