Shekhinah is no stranger to the African music industry.
She burst onto the scene after her stint on the eighth season of Idols South Africa back in 2012 and since then she has made some of the country’s biggest pop hits and won the Best Pop & Alternative award at the MTV Africa Music Awards in 2016.
She has collaborated with people like Sketchy Bongo, Kyle Deutsch and Dj Sliqe, and now she has just released her very own debut album, Rosegold.
“It might sound weird but I started working on Rosegold forever ago, well at least that's how it feels because I have been constantly writing music for this album since 2015. I would write and keep the music. I started compiling the album last year though, that’s when I decided on which songs I wanted, what songs could be adapted and that's when I got into the studio,” she said.
Although she has many songs out that fans have enjoyed, Shekhinah wanted her debut album to reveal who she really is.
“You know because this is my debut album, I wanted people to understand what and who I am now and I wanted to give them insight into the things I have been through in my life," she said.
I also want them to see that I am actually a very serious person, weird but serious and I am serious about my career. I think that a lot of the time as women, our hard work ethic is usually brushed aside and that should not be the case, this album shows my work ethic."
She said that one of the challenges with this album was deciding on what sound stays and what sound goes.
“Being a lover of almost every genre there is, trying to put everything in this album and making it all gel was very difficult, and I mean really difficult. If I had my way it would be a mashup of everything but that wouldn't make any sense."
She describes the album as a RnB pop soul album.
“I know that fusion music is a trend at the moment and fusion is dope but that’s not how I would describe this album. I am a really soulful singer and the lyrical content is pop while the musical sound is influenced by RnB, which is a genre a grew up listening to," she said.
The first single off the album, Suited, has already gained major airplay and has trended on social media.
“I specifically wanted Suited to be the first single off the album because it’s the closest song that sounds like my previous work and I wanted fans to be able to identify the Shekhinah sound they have heard in the past because the rest of the music on the album is very different to my previous work, it has a different sound that some people might need to get used to so I want to ease them into it," she said.
The music video for Suited recently gained more than a million views on video sharing site YouTube.
A rare achievement for a South African artist, Shekhinah however could not be happier.
“It really took me by surprise because I am not even that girl that gets 5000 likes on a Instagram picture but people have been enjoying this video and they have been engaging with me. I think the video has been so successful because it’s honest, it’s a true story, it's very relatable and people are familiar with the emotions I share in that video,” she said.
The video also features the singer's real life boyfriend.
“It was very interesting having him play my lover in the video, I absolutely enjoyed it and so did he. Having him on it was also easy for me to show my emotions, I mean what you see is real in the video because it’s real off the camera too and that’s why I think people enjoy it, ” she said.
Shekhinah said she hopes that people enjoy the album and experience a different side of the singer and a different sound. “For me this albums signifies the start of my career, it might sound crazy but it does, and that’s because it's a body of work I can call my own, it’s my album," she said.