Lady X makes her music mark
“I’M sorry, I think I’m crying.”
The way Lady X says this sounds more like a response to her own thoughts than a statement directed towards the audience that has gathered to help her launch her debut album. She’s standing in front of us, on stage and has just performed one of her singles, Igugu Lami.
“The album is finally out and I think it’s finally sinking in,” she says from behind the mic stand.
“I’m so sorry to be crying on stage, I didn’t know that was going to happen. Igugu Lami means a lot to me. It just brings back a lot.”
Lady X, in a beaded, gilded bodysuit and a golden cape, takes a moment to compose herself.
Lady X (real name Xolisa Mvula), made a name for herself as a house music vocalist whose singing can be found on songs by the likes of Mo Flava, Maphorisa and Black Motion.
With her debut album, Love Life Complicated, Lady X has given Afrosoul pride of place, but she hasn’t forgotten about dance music.
After she has performed a few tracks from the album, I sit down with the singer-songwriter who has managed to pull joy out of an emotional moment earlier.
“This album took me a year to create,” she says. “It was one of the most emotionally-draining things I’ve ever done. When you’re independent and you’re trying to create something out of nothing, it’s tough because there’s money and so much involved.”
Love Life Complicated is produced by Afrosoul/Afropop superproducer Mojalefa “Mjakes” Thebe.
Lady X says: “I’d told my friends I wanted to make an Afrosoul album and they said ‘You should meet Mjakes’. I sent him some of my previous house songs and he was like, ‘Do you know your voice is much bigger than what you are doing right now?’ He believed in my sound and is now my co-writer and my producer.”
Songs like Nguwe and Ndifuna Wena have a pulsating dance rhythm that will appease fans who love her house music stylings. But Lady X says those songs exist because they came organically, not because of a formula.
“I’m a fusion artist,” she says. “Just because I’m now Afrosoul, it doesn’t mean that house music is not a part of me. I started in house, turned it into tribal house, turned it into soulful house and I think what happens is that I keep evolving. I just want to make good music that is authentically South African.”
While you can dance to Nguwe, it’s also a reflection of Lady X’s faith. “The song happened because I just felt like this is my debut album and when I wrote it, I was praying and saying: ‘God, this is me. And I am giving myself to the world. Please open people’s ears. Please open doors for me’. And Nguwe came from that,” she said.
She sings about her faith, her child (on Sana Lwami) and her mother (on A Song for Mama). The last song is one she could not perform without bringing her mother on stage. An ode to a fierce woman, it shows how Lady X was raised.
“I’d like to call on a very special woman on stage,” Lady X had said at the launch. “This is my pillar of strength. She’s the reason why I’m here today,” and she dabbed more tears from the corners of her eyes.
When I ask her about this display of emotion earlier and even on her album, Lady X says: “I am such an open person. I am unapologetically me. This is my dream come true.”
Lady X’s album, Love Life Complicated, is in shops.