Seal plays in Marbella Bullring

It was a sell out audience of 4,000 fans who queued and shuffled in the evening heat outside Marbella’s famous Plaza de Toros to see the superstar singer Seal in concert. Report by Robert Tenison and Ola Jacobsen

Photography Gary Edwards

As the Bull Ring gradually filled to the brim, resident Saxophonist, Florencio played his musical magic getting the crowd in the mood for the first major public concert of the summer season. Before Seal hit the stage, there were whispers of “I only know a couple of Seal songs, I hope he’s good”. Familiar songs such as Killer and Crazy were the two which most knew. As dusk and then darkness arrived, a steady beat introducing Papa Was a Rolling Stone permeated the superb venue of the bull ring and Seal made his appearance onto the stage.

Commitment

The crowd greeted Seal enthusiastically as he launched into the opening song with energy and enthusiasm. He continued with a combination of his old songs and a couple from his forthcoming album Commitment, due out in September.  Commitment is Seal’s first album of new material since 2006 and will feature a mid-tempo soulful rock song All for Love and an acoustic Secrets. The disc promises to be a big hit for the multiplatinum selling artist who has teamed up once again with David Foster who produced Seal’s most successful album Soul which included Kiss From a Rose.

Campeones

Seal was superbly supported by his backing band which included a wind section made up entirely of women in black who moved with fluidity at the back of the stage. Stopping to give an autograph to a German fan he joked about his wife, Heidi Klum being German and the fact that he was honoured that a German should travel to Spain to see him. He engaged with the crowd at regular intervals and joking with the Spanish that he had forgotten who won the World Cup at which point the audience broke out into song themselves with “Campeones, campeones…”.

Midway through the concert,  he opted to play a classical guitar, the neck of which had the names of his children, Lou, Johan, Leni and Henry written in gold as well as Seal, Heidi and a heart. As the evening unfolded the whisperers were heard shouting to each other,  “I know this one, and this and this..!”

Seal played a truely memorable concert made even more special by the location and the crowd who created a wonderful atmosphere.  We look forward to welcoming Seal back sooner rather than later.