Bongeziwe Mabandla

• country:South Africa
• region:Southern Africa
• style(s):Afro, Folk
• label:Universal Music Africa
• type:Band, Trio
• gender:male
• instrumentation:electronic, guitar
• artist posted by:SAKIFO

Line up

• BONGEZIWE MABANDLA (Vocal & Guitar)
• Robin Brink (Drums)
• Tiago Correia Paulo (Keys & Guitar)

Links

• Website and News
• Twitter
• Buy/Stream new single Zange
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Tour dates
• Spotify Profile

“I was influenced by musicians. When I started I wanted to emulate Jabu Khanyile, Oliver Mtukudzi, Simphiwe Dana, Thandiswa Mazwai, Vusi Mahlasela. This is the place that I wanted to draw from. I was driven by the ideology of black consciousness. I felt it was important as a black child to find my identity in the music that comes from people who are like me.... The cultural element only manifested later. I went to English school and it wasn’t until later that I actually started learning isiXhosa. The shift came in when I was doing art history in high school. I asked myself... "where all the black contributors of art?" When I began learning about the contributions that black South Africans had made, I went on a quest to find myself and my culture and to learn more about the contributions people of my culture had made. I was excited, and being an artist I also wanted to start contributing in a way that reflected my culture, and that contribution can be found in my music.”

Reducing all that was then known about African music to ash with his debut album, Bongeziwe Mabandla has, from the very beginning of his journey as a musician, crafted a path of his own. His second album, Mangaliso, propelled him further into the artistic stratosphere, forging an unwavering creative bond with producer Tiago Correia-Paulo, whose masterful tinkerings have only enhanced Bongeziwe’s stellar ability to communicate the universally understood elements of spirituality, truth and love. This year, he returns with a new body of work due for release in November 2019, beginning with Zange -- which aims to take Bongeziwe and his distinctive approach to African music to places few have dared to tread.