South African musician Thandiswa Mazwai’s Tiny Desk performance is still the talk of social media, and the video views keep increasing.
The highly-anticipated video was uploaded on Monday and has 205,876 views on YouTube.
Mazwai is one of post-apartheid South Africa's most influential musicians.
This is the first time she performed at the Tiny Desk at NPR's headquarters as part of the Tiny Desk x globalFEST series.
This is the fourth year Tiny Desk Concerts has teamed up with globalFEST for an online music festival. Tiny Desk Concerts, which began in 2008, is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music in the United States.
The award-winning musician starts off her performance with her hit ‘Nizalwa Ngobani?’ which is dedicated to the ever-resilient people of South Africa.
The song, loosely translated from the Xhosa language to English, means "Do you know where you come from?”
The singer performs with her band Lungile (Lulu) Maduna on drums, vocals, Sunnyboy Mthimunye on guitar, Tendai Ali Shoko (Shox) on bass, Thabang Tabane on percussion and Xolani Thabethe on keys and vocals.
“TinyDesk was one of those dreams that came true for me and my fans. It was intimate and the team at NPR were extremely generous,” said the singer.
“Thank you to globalFEST for hooking us up. The show was shot on a snowy day in DC this January. They usually ask that performances are kept to about 15-18 minutes. So we did about 5 songs, some of them shortened.”
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Mazwai, shared that she dedicated the performance to her daughter Malaika - the love of her life and “truest inspiration”.
Iamsamkemhlong tweeted: “We all now identify as Malaika ke sisi because that performance was very personal nakuthi.”
Oh ANOTHER VERY NB 📣 🌸📣🫶🏿
— SANKOFA ALBUM LAUNCH 11 MAY CARNIVAL CITY (@thandiswamazwai) April 1, 2024
this TinyDesk performance is dedicated to the love of my life, Malaika. My truest inspiration. @MalaikaMazwaii
Pls watch. Cos I love her shem. 😂 pic.twitter.com/AdCgaILm9K
The legendary musician will be releasing the first single ‘Kulungile’ from her upcoming album ‘Sankofa’ on April 12 featuring Nduduzo Makhathini.
The much-awaited album ‘Sankofa' in May 2024 will be celebrated with an exciting performance at Carnival City, Johannesburg on May 11.
IOL Entertainment