Big attitude, big voice filling the venue, that's pretty much what you get when Miriam King sings. She's made a name for herself at the Blues Room in Pretoria as the queen of the blues.
The singer even changed her surname from Mandipira to King in honour of blues great BB King.
Miriam's first South African performances were in Joburg and Pretoria with her Zimbabwean band, Luck Street Blues, in 2005. Her sound - a mixture of Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Brown and Aretha Franklin - clearly impressed audiences.
The songstress, accompanied by her husband, initially hustled for venues in which to perform.
"It was a struggle. Live music still needs a lot of backing in South Africa. It is still a very difficult market to break into," she said.
The first place that offered her a gig was Huckleberry's at the Magnolia Dell, in Muckleneuk. The joint hosts jazz sessions every Saturday night and it is probably the only venue of its kind in Pretoria.
Miriam and her husband never stopped looking, though. Then a friend of theirs told them about open-mic sessions at the popular Blues Room live music venue in Joburg.
After one open-mic session, Miriam was offered opportunities to open for other acts, like Doctor Victor and the Rasta Rebels, and soon ended up with her own show.
She has since recorded two albums, one live at the Blues Room and the other in studio called Black and Blue.
Now she is about to embark on an international career, leaving for Copenhagen, Denmark, later this month. Miriam gave her last performance at Huckleberry's last Thursday and her final South African show will be at the Blues Room this Saturday.
For Miriam, there is nothing gloomy about the blues.
"Blues is not necessarily sad music, but it talks to the heart. And there's a special kind of style to sing the blues. You need to have gone through something to be able to sell your story," she explains.
"Coming from Zim, there are a lot of simple things I could not do there. For me to be able to go into a shop, buy milk and then leave means a lot to me, because it's not that simple back at home. Blues is so honest, you feel like you should be embarrassed to say the things you sing about."
In terms of sounds that define a country, Nigeria may be known for Afrobeat (horn-driven jazz funk), while Ghana is known for highlife (a fusion of African and Western jazz), but Zimbabwe borrows much of its sound from South Africa, because of the Ndebele and Venda connections (Shona, the main language in Zimbabwe, is a blend of Venda and Ndebele).
American jazz is also very popular in her homeland and that is where Miriam derives much of her influence.
And this lady really sings the blues.