Berita’s sweet surprise
IN 2012 Berita delivered a song that would find its place in the definitive SA songbook.
Thandolwethu became a love anthem for the hopeful, the downtrodden, and the optimist equally. It quickly zoomed her up the ladder, earning her gold status for a first album and a Metro FM Music Award for best African-pop album.
Her second album released in 2014 failed to make a mark, but now Berita, whose real name is Gugulethu Khumalo, is re-energised and raring to go with a new project fuelled by the easy-going and uplifting single Surprises.
“Five years ago I was a naive 20-year-old that got into the music industry merely by luck and chance. I’ve had the opportunity to grace many stages across the country and the world. Safe to say, I’m stronger than I have ever been.
“I understand how people struggle to make it with their first album. And to know that I sold gold with my first album is something I’m grateful for, a pleasant surprise.”
Berita was a financial information systems student at Walter Sisulu University in East London and says spending most of her time in class insulated her from the bright lights that often blind rising starlets and lead them down the slippery slope of temptation, groupies, drugs and the whirlwind of fame.
“I like that I wasn’t in Joburg and that I didn’t get around to events, and when I won that award [MetroFM Music] everyone wondered ‘who is she?’.
“It’s been a beautiful journey because it didn’t start with too many flashing lights, I eased into it.
“And I was still lucky enough to get an audience for my first album and I understand how special and rare that is in the industry,” she says.
She says her success brought pride to the folks in East London who saw her busking and performing at community events.
“It was an inspirational moment for them to witness the blossoming of the hustle and I still kept to who I was, I kept humble and focused on my school,” she says.
She reflects on what she knows about the industry that she didn’t know five years ago.
“In my first year in the industry I was in a terrible car accident coming back from a gig and that experience taught me to value my gift and my life and the team of people I work with.
“The experience of seeing my second album not charting taught me a lot about failure.
“Right now as I take out my new music I’m confident in myself. It has nothing to do with how the song is going to do or how the album is going to sell, I’m confident that I’m living my purpose and doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Berita represented South Africa at the Nelson Mandela celebrations in 2015 and recorded Mwana wa Mai, with Hugh Masekela and Oliver Mtukudzi, and she considers those career highlights.
Not too bad for a girl who saved money from milking cows to buy her first guitar in faraway New Zealand where her Zimbabwean parents are still farmers.
She came to the Eastern Cape to study financial information diploma that she completed and to reconnect with her African roots and quickly took up the Xhosa language and became one of the community, but she still holds on to her Zimbabwean citizenship.
“Surprises is the first single I wrote in the new era. I felt it was time to dream again and have a new vision and open myself up.”
Berita says motivating people is part of her mission.
“... that brings me fulfilment because we have to inspire people.”
The new album is produced by Nigerian guitarist Kunle Ayo, who she says understood her direction, as well as Mojalefa “Mjakes” Thebe. It features collaborations with Tresor, Linda Gcwensa and Yvonne Chaka Chaka whom she says is her mother’s favourite musician.
“On this album I enjoyed a bigger role as Mjakes right hand woman, artists I admire keep pushing themselves and work with other artists that make them better.”
“Beautiful journey didn’t start with flashing lights