Bryan Adams' Harare show in pictures

24/01/2014 00:00:00
by Showbiz Reporter

Rocking Harare ... Bryan Adams performs in Harare on Friday

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Disquiet over Brian Adams’ Harare gig

CANADIAN soft-rock star Bryan Adams’ sold out show went ahead in Harare on Friday despite criticism from rights activists.

Tickets for the show – one of the biggest international gigs to be staged in Harare in years for years – were said to have sold out within minutes of concert being confirmed.

Rights activists however, said the gig, which was held at the 3,500-seat Harare International Conference Centre, was inappropriate, considering the situation in the country.

"It's inappropriate at this moment in time for international musical icons to perform in Zimbabwe," Dewa Mavhinga, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said ahead of the show.

"It might send the wrong message that Zimbabwe has come right and there is a basis for international co-operation to resume when there is not. Zimbabwe is going backwards.
“We must avoid ... the impression that all is now fine in Zimbabwe and it is business as usual."

Adams's manager, Bruce Allen, defended the concert. "Bryan is an international artist with a worldwide audience, whether it is Pakistan or Vietnam or Zimbabwe," he told Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.

"To paraphrase what he has said over the course of his 30-plus-year career, everywhere he goes, kids wanna rock. Music will, I hope, always remain a universal language."