Songs
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- country:South Africa
- style(s):Afro, Soul
- label:SKIP Records
- type:Band, Composer/Songwriter
- gender:female
- artist posted by:Kino Music srl
Line up
- Simphiwe Dana (Vocals)
Links
In South Africa an incredible creative potential exists that ranks among the world's finest. One of that potential's most recent success stories bears the name Simphiwe Dana. This young vocalist with an earthy voice that gets under the skin is one of the absolute shooting stars on the South African music scene. Media in South Africa hails Simphiwe Dana as "the best thing to happen to Afro-Soul music since Miriam Makeba" and entitled her as "South Africa Jazz Diva No1" . Her debut album Zandisile has meanwhile gone platinum. During her first tour this summer 2006 in Europe she was celebrated by the audience with standing ovations wherever she performed.
Her tour was probably the most successful tour of an African artist coming for the first time to Europe in decades. Just having been voted "Newcomer Of The Year" and "Best Jazz Vocalist" in the 2005 South African Music Awards (SAMA's), Simphiwe is one of the most sought-after performers to emerge from South Africa in many years and her diligence and hard work has finally paid off for her.
Dana's debut album, Zandisile, was officially launched when Dana shared the stage with Afro-pop star Angelique Kidjo during her performance at the Johannesburg Music Hall on 23 July 2004. It may sound cliche, because it has been said of so many female vocalists that come on to the scene these days, that they sound so much like the young Miriam Makebas and Dorothy Masukas, but Dana's voice does transport you to that golden era in South Africa's history.
It is credit to her immense schooling in different musical forms, not to mention her latent talent that Dana sings as if she has known a lot of pain and suffering in her life. Musically schooled in a church choir from her native East Cape, the distinct influence of gospel music can be heard on her first CD. As the apartheid era came to a close Simphiwe Dana started off by studying fashion design. But after moving to Johannesburg, the hub of the South African music industry, it was her appearances at open-mike sessions that immediately caught the attention of established musicians and producers. They eventually resulted in the recordings for her first album.
Simphiwe's album Zandisile incorporates contemporary jazz with traditional African sounds and progressive R&B, world music and pop. Her maturity shines way beyond her tender 26 years and her music is lodged firmly in her traditional African roots. Since she emerged onto the music scene in South Africa, this unassuming star has far surpassed her counterparts and pushed her way through to being one of the best performers around. At the South African Music Awards, South Africa's equivalent to the Grammy, she won in the categories "Best Newcomer" and "Best Jazz Vocal Album" for 2005, supplemented by nominations as "Best Female Composer" and "Best Female Artist". All of the songs were written by Simphiwe Dana, some of them jointly with such major names in the South African music biz as producer Thapelo Khomo, ex-keyboarder in the cult formations Stimela and Bayete, or Carlo Mombelli, numbered among the country's top bass players. Other prominent artists to be found on Zandisile include Victor Masondo on bass, formerly producer for Miriam Makeba, and drummer Isaac Mtshali, whose virtuosity was heard on Paul Simon's Graceland.
When asked about direct influences, Simphiwe Dana names the jazz legends Lena Horne and Sarah Vaughan, South African veteran vocalists like Dorothy Masuka, but also lesser greats from the realms of reggae, jive and traditional Xhosa music. She defines her own style as Modern African Soul. Her lyrics speak mainly of the significance of tradition, yet also of the struggle for self-confidence and freedom, especially freedom for women.
With the international release of Zandisile and a scheduled European tour this year, the vocalist from Johannesburg is now going about proving beyond her heartland what the internet magazine from MWEB, South Africa's biggest online provider, wrote about her: "The best thing to happen to Afro-Soul music since Miriam Makeba."
On "The One Love Movement On Bantu Biko Street", her second album, Simphiwe Dana sets forth the path she has chosen for herself: self-written compositions covering topics like politics and the family melded into melodies and rhythms that can stand on their own; the whole fed from an interplay of South African roots and contemporary Pop and Jazz elements. With songs consistently performed in Xhosa, her mother tongue, this time a booklet of translations into English has also been included so that it's no longer a secret when a very personal love song crops up here and there in her repertoire. The highly political title opens up a hopeful perspective toward overcoming the repressions that the black population of South Africa had been subjected to for so long. As Simphiwe Dana puts it, "Bantu Biko Street is the only street paved with our hopes and dreams, our golden highway that must first exist in our minds."
Simphiwe Dana is back with her new studio album Kulture Noir.
Kulture Noir comprises thirteen new songs and builds on Dana's trademark fusion of deep African musical roots, inspired melodies and a stunningly unique contemporary voice. The result is another beautifully crafted collection to add to the South African songbook.
Kulture Noir was recorded alongside acclaimed producers from the African continent and Diaspora including Thapelo Khomo, producer of her debut Zandisile; Nigeria's 'Afro Juju' and jazz guitar maestro Kunle Ayo; and the SAMA Award winning Mozambican artist and producer Moreira Chonguica.
The first single from Kulture Noir, Ndimi Nawe, is a track that, like so much of Dana's work, defies genre. Described by Dana herself as "meditative and celebratory," the haunting Ndimi Nawe is a textured blend of light and dark over which Dana invokes the spirits and finds strength.
"I stand with you in your moments of joy and with you in your moments of pain - and find strength," explains Simphiwe Dana on Ndimi Nawe.