TALENT
Ndlovu Youth Choir rocks the world
From the dusty streets of Moutse to the red carpet of Hollywood — this has been the journey of the Ndlovu Youth Choir, who have repeatedly given South African audiences goosebumps, especially over the past few weeks. The choir, which began as an after-school activity for students from Moutse, catapulted to stardom after their performance in the finals of the world’s biggest talent show, America’s Got Talent. The choir from the Limpopo village were asked by the show’s producers to audition after their Zulu rendition of Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You went viral on YouTube. Accompanied by Grammywinning South African flautist Wouter Kellerman, their YouTube post had reached more than a million viewers in a week.
The choir was founded in 2009 as part of the Ndlovu Care Group under its child and youth development programme. Dutch doctor Hugo Templeman, CEO of the Ndlovu Care Group, said the choir was started as a “healing programme”.
“I always say metaphorically: ‘From the sand in between the toes of Moutse, they now walk in shoes on the red carpet in Hollywood.’ This ascent has its own risks that we need to manage,” he adds.
The village from which these talented singers hail can be considered the red-headed stepchild of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, where goats and cows roam the streets and children push wheelbarrows that carry buckets of water. And yet their motto throughout the competition has been: “Just because you come from poverty, it doesn’t mean that you are poverty.”
Of course, national pride and goosebumps don’t feed families, but the small fee the choristers have been paid during the competition has helped to sustain their relatives at home.
There are 48 members in the choir, 24 of whom competed in Simon Cowell’s internationally popular show.
About their final performance this week, the choir posted the following message on Twitter: “Tonight we were proud young ambassadors of a united world. We just performed in the grand finale at America’s
Got Talent! Help us end our incredible AGT journey on a high, we need your vote.”
Nomvula Majola, whose son Sandile is the choir manager, said it was a dream come true for all of them, and that everyone in the community felt honoured to be associated with the choir. “In our area, a small place like Moutse, to have such incredible talent like these young people bringing prosperity to all of us is such an achievement and we are proud of them. This shows that diamonds can come from a rough place,” she said.