By Darran Mabuza
It’s been a whirlwind of a year for Nontokozo Mkhize who recently performed at the Metro FM Music Awards where she was also nominated for two awards.
The songstress hails from the township of Inanda, outside Durban. It was her social media covers of popular Afropop songs that caught the attention of rapper and singer, Sjava, who then featured her in his 2023 hit album Isibuko. “Touring with Sjava last year fuelled my passion and dreams as an artist. Just from looking at the number of sold out shows we did, it made me think to myself, ‘I want this too and surely, I will do it.’”
The 24-year-old’s debut single is called Lu-Strong and features award winning singer and University of KwaZulu-Natal graduate, Nomfundo Moh. She says the song is about the kind of love that can’t be shaken. “My manager used to sing the chorus ‘bahlal’abezamazamisa uthando lwethu’up until we realised the potential of it. We then decided to compose a song around it. He actively helps us in studio with song writing and melody compositions.”
She is also featured on Mhaw Keys’s ‘Ungo Wami’. “I received Amapianobeats to write to. I didn’t know they were from Mhaw Keys. I got in the studio with him later, after he liked what I had done on one of the beats.”
After getting an overwhelming response from her fans on her cover of Benjamin Dube’s songs titled bow down she had to give the people what they wanted.
Mkhize says she is working hard on recording and putting together a full body of work. “Judging by how things are going, I think I will release an album hopefully before the year ends. I also started a project called Jamming and Journeying where I will sit down with artists and talk about music and our different journeys.”
