25th June, at The Bar Sunninghill Sandton it’s where it all went down. Fortunately, one of our teammates managed to join the “I know” single launch by the one and only Naledi Boltina, the African Lion. Like always, the phenomenal songstress from Eastern Cape who currently resides in Johannesburg delivered an amazing set as she fully introduced her new single “I know”, which is more than just a song, but a thoroughly written joint with a well needed message for music all. As the afternoon proceeded Ayanda from our team in JHB, managed to have a minute with Naledi, which gave us more than what transpired on the launch.
Please share how did you start and why did you start music? “To the best of my memories, I have always been singing. In school I was always in choirs, in plays and concerts as well as lots of church involvement and participation in cultural activities. I attended Victoria Girls High School in Port Elizabeth, that is where Mr Mkhize was my music teacher and more than anything he would encourage me to always go for it as I started to develop my music writing at the time”. At the age of 15, I recorded with a group called Point 5 which included Heavy K; MSK; Mlu; Thando and Q-base – that was my first studio experience with the group. Unfortunately, at the time our song that we were working on was leaked and stolen, a very common challenge in the music industry”.
How did the decision to be an independent artist as a woman in the music industry come about? “It wasn’t a decision that I took upon myself to be an independent artist, but I realized that sitting and waiting for someone to help you make your dreams a possibility is not going to happen. I had to find it within me to get the ball rolling. When I first moved to Johannesburg I was part of Y Academy, and worked with Ferguson Films; I have featured on The Queen, Rockville; Isibaya; and others. At some point I was on set of ‘The Gift’ with Vuyiseka Cawa, thinking this is it, this is my big break but 3 months later things turned the other way. There was a time where I was doubting myself and my abilities as I had been hustling in the industry for about 10 years and I believed that I had the ability to succeed, but one does get to a point where you question yourself. Normally, in the industry you would have a full team but I didn’t, and I had to start somewhere by doing my own cover designs/graphics etc. and now that I am slowly growing I do have a small supportive team and I am able to focus on myself and my music”.
We remember your feature with Ice Prince, but for someone who do not know name any feature you did previously with any South African artist? “For your information, me and Ifani are cousins and when he released his 2nd Quadrant album, he said to me that he would want for me to be on that album. It was very exciting for me as I had a song that I had written in in that album which is called “Enkosi”, this was around 2015”.
How did the single "I know" came about? “I know comes from everything that I have gone through in the industry as an artist, so many people were questioning my abilities, not taking me seriously as they viewed me as an “upcoming artist”, to what experience do I have to manage anyone. In my deepest and darkest moments, I asked myself ‘what is God trying to teach me?’, ‘what am I suppose to learn from this?’ in order to never find myself here again. I learnt to turn my situations around, things that had the potential to break me; I have managed to turn them around into my strength and power. Always try and find the silver-lining no matter how bad things are".
Before we wrap up, where do you see yourself in 10 years? "I see myself touring the world, I call myself ‘African Lion’ – because once I get into the studio there is a lion strength that comes through me and brings me alive. I want to be representing Africa as a whole though music. It is so dear to me that I was so well received by fellow artists from other African countries and will forever keep that in my heart especially Nigeria”.
Lastly, when can the public expect a full album? “In the digital age that we are in now, people pick and choose which song that they want to download to listen to, eventually it’s every song on the album that they will like or want to listen to, so what I’m doing is releasing 1 track at a time and then after releasing them all put them together as an album”.