She was a vocalist who sang in every style – from Carmen to UShaka – with equal mastery, popularising classical forms and epitomising ‘the new South Africa’.
Drummer Jason Moser records a live-streamed performance in a South African theatre during lockdown.
Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Like Pata-Pata, Homeless and Mbube, the song Jerusalema is elevated by a historical moment in time and has the power to cross over to different audiences.
Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba.
Courtesy Adilson Maiza for Fenómenos do Semba
During the coronavirus pandemic the Jerusalema dance challenge enacted a way for communities to connect - repetitive enough to be picked up and varied enough to tease.
Her sensitive new album is rooted at home in South Africa while at the same time journeying to Mali, where it was recorded and co-produced with Salif Keita.
A mural by famed Cape Town artist Faith47.
Frédéric Soltan/Corbis/Getty Images
There aren’t a lot of studies on South Africa’s cultural economy. A new one finds a cluster of creative firms in Cape Town with high levels of innovation.
A period of intense dreaming in 1964 shaped the entire body of the late Joseph Shabalala’s songs. In these rare in-depth interviews, he spoke of his beliefs and inspirations.
Hugh Masekela: one of the great jazz trumpeters was often relegated to the ‘world music’ section.
EPA/Skip Bolen
Kwaito music star Mandoza was an important symbolic figure in the post-apartheid cultural scene. His success and his refusal to relinquish his tsotsi identity redefined what kind of man could be respected in a free South African.
Why should African graduates be honoured with a Latin song when the continent has plenty of its own music and ways of celebrating?
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A Latin song takes centre stage at graduation ceremonies around the world, including in South Africa. Isn’t it time the continent used its own methods to celebrate major events?
The age-old question of whether musicians should be writing for themselves or for their audiences has no easy answer.
Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji
While the debate seems not to be solvable, three academics look at the question of whether artists should provide entertainment or write for their own pleasure.
In a track called Bring it Back Home, Hugh Masekela bemoans the tendency by politicians, who after ascending to power, discard the people who helped them get there.
Andrea De Silva/Reuters
Concert organisers began to compete for government contracts. Often these contracts came with conditions as to who, among musicians, was desirable at government events.
South Africa’s Oppikoppi music festival in the town of Northam, Limpopo has come to represent the aspirations of a generation which embraces the diversity of the country’s peoples and their respective music.
Nikita Ramkissoon/The Conversation
The Oppikoppi Music Festival, one of the biggest and most popular in South Africa, holds on to the musical memories of the past and provides a musical map to the future.