PMB singer living his Idols dream
APietermaritzburg man is living beyond his wildest dream after making it to the Idols SA top nine on Sunday.
Kabelo Makhetha (25), from Ashburton, told Capital Newspapers that he didn’t even expect to make it through this year’s auditions.
The Maritzburg College Old Boy said he only discovered that he could sing when he was 12 years old doing Grade 6 at Merchiston Preparatory School.
Makhetha said he and a group of friends decided to join the school choir just to skip the last period of the day on Fridays. He said the then principal and choir conductor, the late Dave Beetar, was amazed at hearing him sing and started encouraging him to sing solos. Beetar died in January last year due to Covid-19 related illness.
“At first I didn’t want to sing solos but [Beetar] basically forced me to. He then made me sing with the more principal singers and ended up mentoring me,” he said.
In high school, Makhetha said he continued to nurture his new-found talent and joined the youth choir. From there, he started to love music and was even able to teach himself how to play the guitar. Makhetha said his family was shocked, as he and his twin brother Reaetsoe are the only two people in the family who can sing.
He said his mother, who is a teacher, has been supportive of his love for music but said she has also been pushing him to study further.
Makhetha studied sound engineering at Creative Art College and then studied IT at the ITCA.
With the Idols auditions now being online due to the pandemic, Makhetha, who works as a call-centre agent in Durban, said he decided to submit an audition video, but had doubts of making
the cut as he had not put his all into the performance.
He said after submitting the video, he forgot about the audition and also lost his cellphone, so he only saw an email from Idols two days before he had to leave for Johannesburg for the next leg of the competition.
Makhetha said his journey so far has been challenging, as this is his second time entering Idols. In 2020, he was eliminated in the group rounds.
“The journey has been difficult. Somizi, one of the judges, didn’t like my audition, but the other judges thought it was solid. Due to my past failures, I was slack. I was just scared, and it reflected in all my performances but the judges saw something in me and I kept moving to the next round.”
Makhetha said he is breaking out of his shell now and has promised the audience and his fans his best.
“I’m in it for the journey and also in it to win it. I’ve had a great response from people on social media, but it is a bit overwhelming.”
He said the Idols music workshops have been insightful and he has learnt a lot and is becoming a better singer.
To catch Makhetha’s next live performance on Idols, tune in on Mzansi Magic (DStv Channel 161) on Sunday at 5:30pm. To vote for Makhetha, SMS 12 to 37400. You can also vote on the DSTV app or on the Idols website at https:// www.idolssa.net/