Toya shares her journey
TAKING fans on a journey. That’s the goal of SA music superstar, Toya Delazy, who has just released a video for her latest single Nu High.
The single has been released in South Africa and the UK and this week the multiple award winning singer and granddaughter of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi spoke to The Independent on Saturday about her music and growing legions of fans.
“Nu High is currently playlisted on radio in the UK and the music video will soon be on TV,” she says.
Her popular Love My City hit number five on the UK music charts.
Shooting the video took her across the country and opened her eyes as to the sheer beauty of South Africa.
“South Africa is majestic, many people don’t travel and take the time to go on road trips exploring.”
Under director Wynand Van Wyk, scenes were shot in Cape Town, Hluhluwe and Phinda, as well as in London, on a journey Delazy describes as moving “out of my comfort zone, but it was worth the early mornings, driving across the country, the blazing sun and even wearing a dress, as I felt I had to shoot parts of my music video in South Africa not only to contribute to the local economy, but also to show the world just how beautiful my home is,” she says.
She describes her new album as “a collection of different tracks that I have been writing, an accumulated body of work inspired by different parts of the world and my journey after leaving my record label and creating my own label.”
While some songs on the album took three years to make, “some songs were made in a day,” she said.
A classically trained jazz pianist, Delazy promises fans her new work is very much her own style, with the new music video playing with colour, silhouettes, changing angles and profiles in typical Delazy style.
“I like to take my viewers on a journey,” she says.
And being Women’s Month, we had to ask who her role model was.
“My grandmother. Her strength, tenacity and inner beauty are a pillar of strength,” she says.
While Nu High is currently playlisted on around 40 radio stations such as 5FM, Highveld Stereo, East Coast Radio, GoodHope FM and YFM, the music video has just been released on Vevo and is expected to be on MTV Base, Trace TV and Channel O this
month.