Sub Saharan African Blog

 For this blog I will be talking about South African music. A couple of days ago my dad sent me two videos of a children's choir from South Africa named Ndlovu. They were doing a performance on America's Got Talent and they sounded amazing. I enjoyed hearing them sing and see the smiles on their faces as they performed. They performed a song called Beautiful Day. I really liked the way it sounded. The song was beautiful overall. In the other video the children's choir did a really cool version of the song Africa. My Dad has a friend from South Africa named Sam. We reached out to her and asked if she had any favorite South African music and she sent me a spotify playlist of her favorites, a link to a very cool youth choir from South Africa and told me about her favorite artist Johnny Clegg. I was really excited to learn about these new to me  artists.

The youth choir was close to my heart because I sang in a youth choir for many years. The thing I liked most about that youth choir was the way they performed. It was very enjoyable to listen to them because they all had a smile on their face as they performed and they enjoyed being up on the stage as they were singing. The youth choir I am talking about is called Ndlovu and they are a youth choir from South Africa. Ndlovu performed on America's Got Talent global which is linked below  Their performance was very uplifting and moving to me you could definitely tell the choir director for this youth choir enjoyed conducting them. He had a smile on his face the whole time. The choir definitely moved me. I really enjoyed that performance they did on America's Got Talent Global. The youth choir did another performance and they got to sing the song Africa but it was a beautiful arrangement of the song. They  all had  a smile on their face during this performance too. I could tell by their eyes and the way they were dancing that they looked like they were enjoying  the song that they were doing. I know this because like I said earlier I have been in a choir for many years and our choir director always told us to  look alive  when we are performing. I was very impressed by the youth choir's performance. I also really liked the traditional style costumes the choir was wearing. The costumes were beautiful . It was really amazing to hear the story of this youth choir . They are from a small community in South Africa called Limpopo and there have been some difficulties and how it was hard for them growing up. Some of the members of the choir were talking about how there is poverty and how some of the houses don't have running water. Which is very heart wrenching to know about. When I hear emotional stories like that It makes me want to cry knowing how hard their living situation is. Below is one of the performances from the youth choir I hope you guys like the performance.

My Dads friend Sams all time favorite South African musician is a Guy named Johnny Clegg he was born in Bacup England  in 1953 and he died in Johannesburg South African in 2019.  He was a white half- Jewish kid who grew up in Johannesburg his parents were Denis Clegg and Muriel Pienaar . In his lifetime he has collaborated with many different artists he founded a band called Savuka and he was also recorded as a solo act too.  He was part of a band called Juluka and they were the first group in the South African apartheid era. Later on in his life he got married to a woman named Jenny Clegg and had a child named Jesse Clegg. Johnny Cleggs musical influence was his friend Sipho Mchunu who is a Zulu Migrant worker and street musician in Johannesburg. He taught Johnny the Zulu language and traditional Zulu music.  One of his most famous songs is called Kiliminjaru. I liked his music because he has a  unique voice  and in the song Scatterlings of Africa they use a bunch of traditional instruments and the song sounds Zulu like and thats what I really like about Johnny Cleggs music it is unique and different. He is most famous for being in the band Juluka. here is one of Johnny Cleggs songs I hope you enjoy listening to it

The playlist that my friend sent me sounds very different from the music I usually listen to but I really like it because some of the songs have a funky beat to it and it has different instruments. I like this one song called Doo Be Doo. The song had a funky beat to it and was very fun to listen to. The first song on the playlist that she sent me was called Nkalakatha and I liked that song a lot it sounded like an electronic dance song with a funky mix and some of the other songs sound traditional like the song Homeless by Ladysmith Black Mambazo the song has  a very traditional beat to it the song was acapella and it sounded so pretty. I really like this playlist she sent me because it is always is nice to listen to music that is new to me like this playlist . I really like that the songs all have a different beat to them and not the same beat for all of the songs because it would be boring if all of the songs had the same beat to it. This playlist is really cool to listen to and I love hearing all the different songs on it. Here is one of the songs from the playlist hope you guys enjoy the song.