Now, I'm the first one to preach that South Africans need not stand back for anyone when it comes to delivering top class (i.e., world class) performance. But my main context has been engineering and technology. Now, I realise that our musicians also excel. Not that I have not heard world class local music but, rather, that the excellence is well established and that the evidence that it will go on to higher strengths is clear.
In my office there is a radio that plays, alternatively, the local stations Good Hope FM and P4 Radio. It's more of a nuisance than anything, but it was here when I got here, and my colleagues seem unable to function without it - so I don't interfere. Every now and then I realise that a particular song (and they get played to death on these stations) has something special about it. I don't generally know their names or the artists performing them, but this Saturday I heard the Song Dance of Life by Lira. I know the tune from the office radio but this time I was in my car and could listen attentively. Long story short: I was blown away! I made a mental note to get the CD. But it was only later the next day, listening to Shado Twala's afternoon show on P4 Radio, that I learnt that the artist is local, nogal! ...and that she had just won two SAMA awards. A quick internet search revealed that she also sings another song that I had been subconsciously enjoying in the office, Feel Good. This girl is the biz... and old school to the max!
This link has snippets of the two songs I refer to.
I'm definitely getting this music!
In my office there is a radio that plays, alternatively, the local stations Good Hope FM and P4 Radio. It's more of a nuisance than anything, but it was here when I got here, and my colleagues seem unable to function without it - so I don't interfere. Every now and then I realise that a particular song (and they get played to death on these stations) has something special about it. I don't generally know their names or the artists performing them, but this Saturday I heard the Song Dance of Life by Lira. I know the tune from the office radio but this time I was in my car and could listen attentively. Long story short: I was blown away! I made a mental note to get the CD. But it was only later the next day, listening to Shado Twala's afternoon show on P4 Radio, that I learnt that the artist is local, nogal! ...and that she had just won two SAMA awards. A quick internet search revealed that she also sings another song that I had been subconsciously enjoying in the office, Feel Good. This girl is the biz... and old school to the max!
This link has snippets of the two songs I refer to.
I'm definitely getting this music!
