• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us

For all official information and updates regarding COVID-19, visit the South African Department of Health's website at www.sacoronavirus.co.za

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home Features SABC News Features

Musician Tribute Mboweni on her collaboration with DJ Ganyani

13 June 2020, 3:03 PM  |
Lerato Matlala Lerato Matlala |  @SABCNews
This week fine artist Kabelo Letshwene talks about fine art.

This week fine artist Kabelo Letshwene talks about fine art.

Image: SABC News, Instagram@birdieworldwide

This week fine artist Kabelo Letshwene talks about fine art.

Creatives Under Lockdown is a SABC News feature, which focuses on issues affecting artists. This week musician  Tribute Mboweni shares the story behind her collaboration with DJ Ganyani.

Musician Tribute Mboweni in a video shoot for her single with DJ Ganyani. Instagram@birdieworldwide

The song Tsokombela tells the story of a woman who is madly in love with a particular man. However, she is hesitant to pursue the relationship. Tsokombela is a Tsonga phrase that relates to sweetness and in the song, the woman expresses her sweet love towards the man.

The collaboration for the song began when musician Tribute Mboweni sent a message to renowned DJ Ganyani declaring her intention to work with him.

 Two months after sending the message, DJ Ganyani sent her a beat, which she took just a couple of hours to write lyrics to. “What had happened was, a few weeks before I came back home I had dreamed of the song and fortunately I had been able to wake up and record the lyrics and the melody. And I forgot all about it. Weeks after I had come back home I stumbled upon it in my voice notes and I started writing the song based on the idea I had dreamed of. The beat that DJ Ganyani sent to me just fit perfectly.”

Musical background

Born and raised in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga province, Mboweni cut her teeth at church. She was part of the youth choir and joined other singing groups in the church. “Until I started meeting musicians outside of the church and started experimenting with different kinds of music outside of gospel. And it was late in 2011 when I started performing as a solo artist.”

Her self-titled debut album saw her perform in some of the best stages in South Africa, including the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.

The South African Music Awards nominee also shared her talent with fans in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, and France. Mboweni says this has been the highlight of her musical career. “It has been an amazing journey and I have had a lot of great times on stage. Growing up, that is all I wanted to do.”

Role models 

Her album also included a rendition of legendary Dorothy Masuka’s MaGumede. Masuka is one of Mboweni’s musical role models. “Her footprint in terms of her music, her songs, her writing is totally amazing. And it is far-reaching. She was a political activist and she did this through her music. I find it very inspiring how she used her music for activism,” Mboweni says of Masuka.

Youth Month 

This month, South Africa is remembering the Youth of 1976 who fought against the apartheid regime. Mboweni says currently the biggest enemy the youth is facing is unemployment. “There are many of us who are sitting at home, unemployed, not because we are not skilled and not because we do not qualify for any jobs, but it is just hard to find jobs.”

Coronavirus

The month is commemorated differently this year, without events, as the world continues to fight the battle against the coronavirus. Mboweni says she could not go on with some of the performances that were lined up. “A lot of the other works that I do as a singer, the writing, conceptualizing of shows, that has not stopped. I can still do that from home.”

Although she aims to continue collaborating with artists, her main focus now is to complete her Ph.D. in Anthropology.

INTERESTING  FACTS ABOUT  Tribute Mboweni

Q: Whose music do you currently listen to?

A: Currently, I am listening to a lot of Dobet Gnahoré. She is from the Ivory Coast. I really love her music.

Q: What do you do for fun? 

A: I don’t do a lot of activities that I consider fun activities, outside of my work. And because my work involves a lot of traveling, I guess that’s fun because I really enjoy that. I also really don’t have a lot of time to fill with activities. So I guess travelling is fun but it is also a part of what I do.

 Q: Which books are you currently reading? 

A: Right now, I am a lot of ethnographies that have to do with my school work. Fortunately, I really enjoy them as well. So, currently, I am reading a lot of academic books and articles.

 Q: How do you balance being an academic and a musician? 

A: I unfortunately do not have a formula for balancing my life out. I mostly just prioritise what needs to be prioritised as things come. What I love about doing both is the fact that they kind of help balance each other out –  because when I am really frustrated with the one, I can always turn to the other.

Below is a podcast with Tribute Mboweni: 

Related: Part 1: Starving artist’ a more meaningful phrase amid lockdown

Related: Part 2: ‘I don’t know myself outside my world of acting’

Related: Part 3:  Letshego Zulu on fitness under lockdown 

Related: Part 4: Uzalo’s Wiseman Mncube shares his journey

Related: Part 5: Artists advised to spend prudently in order to survive rainy days

Related:  Part 6: Thabo Malema on the new enemy, his dream and COVID-19

 

 

 

Share article
Tags: Southern African Music Rights OrganisationLerato MatlalaMusicCreatives Under LockdownTsokombela
Previous Post

South Africans allowed to fly domestically must carry relevant permit

Next Post

Habib worried about effect of COVID-19 on Wits finances

Related Posts

Dioramas of mostly urban life, which were created by Barnard College administration employee Aaron Kinard during the pandemic, are displayed at his home in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. July 1, 2022.

New York artist turns Brooklyn home into showcase for urban dioramas

3 July 2022, 2:12 AM
File: Kwa-Zulu-Natal former Premier Senzo Mchunu on the day of the State of the Province Address pays tribute to His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu for being a symbol of unity for the people of Kwa-Zulu-Natal.

AmaZulu royal family concludes ceremonial mourning period activities for late King Zwelithini

2 July 2022, 9:25 PM
Al-Jamah President, Ganief Hendricks says government has now been given only two years to amend the Marriage and Divorce Acts in order to recognise the Nikah.

Government given two years to amend the marriage or divorce Acts to recognise Islamic marriages

2 July 2022, 7:00 PM
Premier of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, Sihle Zikalala at the 126th edition of the  Durban July 2022.

Zikalala: Durban July is the boost that KZN needed

2 July 2022, 5:51 PM
Murdoch and Hall married in a low-key ceremony in central London's Spencer House in March 2016.

Jerry Hall files for divorce from Rupert Murdoch

2 July 2022, 5:32 AM
R Kelly is sentenced by Judge Ann Donnelly for federal sex trafficking at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, US, June 29, 2022 in this courtroom sketch.

R. Kelly sues Brooklyn jail for putting him on suicide watch

2 July 2022, 4:23 AM
Next Post
Adam Habib says the ability of the so-called missing middle students to pay fees may be severely affected at this time.

Habib worried about effect of COVID-19 on Wits finances

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • EMS says fire at Bree Street Taxi Rank in Johannesburg has been extinguished
  • The public has until 18 May to make submissions on Icasa’s regulations for extension of expiry period for data, airtime
  • ANC NEC expected to hold a special meeting on Sunday
  • Eastern Cape flood victims plead for support as access to food, services remains difficult
  • Amathole Regional Secretary elated to have corruption charges against him dropped
  • E Cape Liquor Board says Enyobeni tavern owner will face criminal charges
  • Missing Soweto boy’s body found at Eldorado Park wastewater plant
  • Interpol arrests suspect for swindling US citizens millions of dollars
  • Police close investigation into Enyobeni tavern tragedy
  • Taxi commuters to pay an additional R5 in fare from Friday
  • East London police search for clues that led to tavern death; calls to revoke tavern’s licence 
  • UPDATE: At least 17 people killed in an East London tavern stampede
  • SANTACO and NTA calls on COSATU to join the national shutdown over the hiking fuel prices
  • NTA yet to decide whether to support calls for national shutdown amid fuel price hikes
  • South Africans no longer required to wear face masks indoors

LATEST

Adesanya
  • Sport

Adesanya, Volkanovski retain titles at UFC 276


Farming
  • South Africa

Tigane farm dwellers currently living in squalor given new hope


General view of a Wimbledon match.
  • Sport

Wimbledon prize money a ‘life changer’ for Kubler


  • South Africa

East London’s Scenery Park youth demand action to stop underage drinking


The aftermath of a shelling on an office building near the centre of Kharkiv, which hadn’t been shelled in weeks, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues in Kharkiv, Ukraine,
  • World
  • Russia, Ukraine conflict

Blasts kill three in Russian city near Ukraine border


Eskom
  • South Africa

NUM expects power situation to return to normal following latest wage negotiations


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2022

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous South Africans allowed to fly domestically must carry relevant permit
Next Habib worried about effect of COVID-19 on Wits finances