By Jessica Kamp 
On April 3, 2025, the charming singer Sven Cilliers took the stage at Metropool in Enschede, the Netherlands. The singer was born in South Africa and has already built quite a loyal fanbase in Europe. He recently supported Irish singer-songwriter Gavin James, and his career is rising rapidly. He’ll soon also be opening for Sheppard. But for now—solo.
Sven’s show kicked off with the song “Paper Mache”, followed by an upbeat cover of “Shut Up and Dance with Me”. He then performed a song about Pretoria, the city in South Africa where he comes from. It was a beautiful piece that had not yet been released. After a few uptempo tracks, it was time to slow things down with Sven’s latest release, “Is it Okay?”. This, too, proved to be a lovely, calm song with an emotional undertone.
Cilliers managed to mix his setlist well with his own songs and covers of tracks everyone knows, making it easy for fans to sing and dance along. But the majority of the enthusiastic audience chose to listen to his authentic voice.
No, the singer wasn’t alone on stage. Stan, his guitarist and best friend, supported him with his electric guitar. They are a fantastic duo and radiated just how much they both love making music together.
Fan projects were, of course, present, too. That became clear when, during the song “Garden Route”, a fan, along with two others, held up a Dutch flag. Sven and Stan each received a flag and tried to wear them together as capes like real superheroes. It sparked a lot of laughter in the crowd and created a successful moment of interaction between the artist and his fans.
Sven Cilliers closed with two original songs that have already been released. These were “History” and “Hazelwood”, and both turned out to be strong finishes to a successful performance. After the show, a merch table was ready, and fans could take photos with the two musicians—ending the night perfectly for many.
Photos (c) Jessica Kamp
