Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Singer is poised for album debut
A BUDDING Afro-soul house artist says she is ready for any challenges the music industry may throw at her.
Zanda Zakuza, 24, is no stranger to hardship and things not going her way. She grew up in rural KwaZuluNatal with an absent father, a single mother and aunt to care for her and her 10 cousins.
“There were 13 of us in a four-room house. I was the only girl and for the longest time growing up around male cousins, I had forgotten I was a girl. I grew up a tomboy and I think that has in many ways empowered me to face the challenges which come with being in the music industry,” she said.
Zakuza joined the industry in late 2014, after she graduated from the Gamalakhe Technical and Vocational Education and Training college in Potchefstroom.
“I attained a diploma in human resources and administration. I didn’t really like what I studied but I did it to please my mother after I had dropped out of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s school of music where I studied jazz and drama,” she said.
Zakuza said she was passionate about jazz and believed her voice would bring a new flavour to the genre.
“But jazz can be depressing and it simply ages you,” she said. So, she parked that dream and “did a bit of hustling” in her home town of Umlazi. “I even got a temp job as an human resources officer,” she said.
After knocking on many doors trying to get her story heard through her music, she decided to quit at the end of 2015. This was after a music producer Zakuza didn’t want to name allegedly stole her song. Zakuza claimed she had written a song which the producer wanted to use without crediting her and she cut ties. This was shortly before two other music producers demanded sexual favours to help get her music on the airwaves.
Zakuza, who is a vocalist on DJ Mdix’s hit song Umvulo, said she gave up six songs to the two producers “because I am not like that”.
She recently released her single, Hamba, which talks about “trials and tribulations” she went through in the music industry.
“I am now working on a house album named after my mother Cynthia, but is not with a “C” but rather an “S”, so it’s Synthia,” she said.
On her latest album she worked with “great producers, people I have wanted to work with so badly, Mjakes Thebe, Dr Moruti, The Spirit Bank and Bongo beats”.
“Though people looked at me funny and asked if I was crazy, I knew what I wanted and knew what I was doing. Now those very people think my album is hot,” she said.
Asked why she was not releasing her album during the festive season, she said: “I wanted to keep away from the festive fever. Once everyone has calmed down, I will hit them with my great music.”
The singer promised her fans “great soulful sounds that people can listen to and find themselves in”.
“Music that tells a story and most of all, music with a message.”
The album will be released in February.