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THERE’S something incredibly thrilling about experiencing an artist’s alter ego and Sven-Eric Müller’s pivot from dancer to singer via Drag Night, ‘Guts & Glory’, ‘Remembering Johnny’ and his recent solo at The Blush Bar is particularly exciting.
On a Saturday night at the newly opened beauty bar and speakeasy at the Hilltop, Müller takes centre stage at ‘Jazz & Cocktails’. The evening, which is a swinging thing about jazz and cocktails as delightful and on trend as The Blush Bar’s ‘Cha Cha, Real Smooth’ and the infamous ‘Negroni Sbagliato…With Prosecco In It’, kicks off easy with some Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone.
The crowd, to quote Miss Simone, is feeling good and Müller soars through note after note of jazz classics and standards, show tunes and pop songs with the ease, chops and charisma of a seasoned lounge singer.
Intimate and well-paced with little pockets of intermission to refresh one’s libations, the show flits between the bowl-you-over passions of ‘They Just Keep Moving the Line’, ‘Maybe this Time’ and ‘Fever’ to the fizz of ‘New York, New York’ and affecting renditions of Billie Holiday’s ‘Solitude’ and Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’.
The latter gets the crowd singing along and Müller looks somewhat stunned. Though he’s known for being a consummate dancer, particularly through the success of his contemporary ballet ‘Aivilo’, Müller can seriously sing. And if you’ve been following his vocal exploration since his features at Drag Night, you can tell he’s been working on it.
“I love singing. It’s a huge passion of mine and I’ve wanted to put more effort into my singing talent because, to be really honest, it ages better,” says Müller who has been hard at work with a vocal coach in Cape Town.
“Being a dancer, you hit that point where your body can no longer do all the things. I don’t think I’m quite there yet but I want to have both lanes occupied at the same time so when the one needs to fade out, the other one is already ready.”
Crediting his vocal coach with tuning up his voice and pushing him to perform, Müller, who has worked in musical theatre in South Africa, makes his headlining singing debut promising more to come.
“The inspiration is that it’s time. I guess I struggled with a little bit of insecurity about it, even in my musical theatre career. I think the talent was always there, I just didn’t put the right amount of effort in to fully developing the skill and the confidence to have singing be at the forefront,” says Müller.
“I’m really excited for this new chapter in my life. With time and with effort, it has become apparent to me that this is an integral part of my life and expression. So, it’s really exciting getting to the point now where I’m confident and ready to do complete solo shows.”
As far as low-key solo debuts go, Müller slayed and teases a tentative second show at The Blush Bar on 16 September.
“I think ‘Jazz & Cocktails’ went absolutely swimmingly. We had a good turnout. It was an incredible evening of good spirits,” says Müller, who will follow the second show with six weeks of rehearsal in Cape Town before featuring in a dance and puppetry rendition of Handel’s ‘Aci, Galatea and Polifemo’ in Berlin.
“It’s a dance contract, so for that I’ll be a soloist dancer once more, which is also exciting,” says Müller.
“It’s been a while since I’ve done that.”
A dancer and singer all rolled into one, Müller is a multitalent playing the long game with vulnerability, verve, sass and style.
– [email protected]; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com
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