We have had Maleh and we have had Moneoa and now we have Tribute Mboweni (pictured). Affectionately known to her friends as Birdy, which is short for songbird, the Afro-soul star has earned the nickname.
“I started singing when I was little. I just did it for fun and never saw an album in the future. When I started doing it professionally, I never saw me performing on stages outside South Africa. I think it is because I loved so many other things when I was growing up, I did not really take music seriously,” said the bubbly singer.
While she is a phenomenal singer, it took her a long time to come to terms with the fact that music was her destiny.
“In 2012, I put effort into pursuing music as a career but didn’t have great expectations. I just wanted to try it out and I gave it my best,” she said.
While other singers depend on song-writers to come up with material which they usually don’t relate to, Mboweni puts her heart into her songs when she pens them.
“I write all my material and there are only two tracks that I did not write on this album. It is not easy to write because when you hear about songwriters they are spoken of so highly so it is an intimidating process. For me, writing means you have to be willing to put your heart out there. It took me a while, but I got to a point where I convinced myself that I would just go on and give it a try,” she said.
Her first offering is an amazing self-titled album. It is a refreshing listen that tackles an array of subjects which are precious to the singer.
“My album is basically Tribute in 16 songs. There are songs that reference nature, a thing I am very much interested in, and then on tracks like Khomanani I address disturbing things like the recent xenophobia attacks. On Nginjenjenje I am thanking the people who have supported me in everything I go through. I write about love and about how to nurture situations,” she said.
“The responses have been really humbling. People call my sound ‘old’ and ‘refreshing’ which is really amazing because when you put something out there you can’t take it back,” she added.
Now signed to Sipho Sithole’s Native Rhythms, Mboweni confessed that in the beginning she did not think they would be able to work together.
“He said to me: “When you did the first eight bars of the song I was already sold that you could sing’. We started communicating and he’d come to my shows. I felt that I was still young to commit to a music career and didn’t want to be a cover musician. Yet he stuck around and encouraged me to take myself seriously and then, late last year, I signed with him and we recorded the album.”