Belinda Davids has spent years performing the songs of Whitney Houston on stages around the world. Now, the Gqeberha-born singer is stepping into a role that brings that connection full circle: Rachel Marron in the South African premiere of The Bodyguard.
The casting marks Davids’s first musical theatre role and will see her move beyond the concert format that has defined much of her international career, adding acting and dancing to a part built around one of pop music’s most recognisable catalogues.
Belinda Davids steps into the Rachel Marron role
The Bodyguard will open at Artscape in Cape Town on 12 March 2027 before moving to the Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg in April. The production will feature an all-South African cast, crew and band, with further casting still to be announced.
Based on the 1992 movie starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, the story follows superstar singer Rachel Marron and Frank Farmer, the bodyguard hired to protect her after she begins receiving threats. Their initially uneasy relationship develops as the danger around Rachel grows.
The stage musical is built around Houston’s music, including ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’, ‘Queen of the Night’, ‘I Have Nothing’, ‘Run to You’ and ‘So Emotional’. For Davids, it is material she knows intimately after years of performing Houston’s catalogue in The Greatest Love of All tribute production.
Whitney Houston’s music has shaped Davids’s career
Davids began performing professionally as a teenager and later became known internationally for her four-octave vocal range and her ability to tackle Houston’s demanding songs. Her work with The Greatest Love of All has taken her to venues across South Africa, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
She also reached the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent in 2020 after performing ‘One Moment in Time’ during her audition. She returned for the fourth semi-final with ‘I Have Nothing’, finishing second in the public vote for that episode. In 2023, she earned a Golden Buzzer on Spain’s Got Talent: All-Stars.
Those performances made her familiar to audiences who knew her primarily as a powerhouse vocalist. The Bodyguard now asks something different of her, with Rachel Marron requiring Davids to carry a dramatic story as well as the show’s biggest musical moments.
The Bodyguard makes its South African debut in 2027
The production arrives more than three decades after the original movie became a global hit. Its soundtrack went on to become one of the most successful soundtrack albums ever released, turning songs such as ‘I Will Always Love You’ into defining moments of Houston’s career.
For Davids, who has spoken for years about Houston’s influence on her own musical life, the casting is less about recreating the movie than stepping into a new stage of her own career. After building a reputation around the voice, she now gets to inhabit the character behind the songs.
Tickets for the South African season are on sale through Ticketmaster. The production carries a PG12 recommendation.
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Featured Image: Supplied
