Durban – Moonchild a talented songstress from Port Elizabeth. Will be jetting off to the United States at one of the biggest music festivals in the world, the South by South West festival (SXSW).
Sanelisiwe Twisha, working under the name Moonchild, has been in front of the camera for as long she can remember and says her earliest job was modelling. She also participated in ballroom and Latin dancing. “I had to stop dancing and started teaching dance to people in my community and that’s also when I started stealing my mom's bed sheets to make the dresses for ballroom and Latin dancing and in between all of that I started with the whole singing thing.”
Since then Twisha has graced not only ballroom stages but the catwalk with her clothing line; Moonchild Cultwear.
Moonchild has worked with the likes of Uhuru, Sketchy Bongo, Dj Marza and Spoek Mathambo. She describes her music as “feel good” music with a message, “raising awareness about the social ills in our society”.
She says that she also expresses herself in the way she dresses. However Twisha says she always manages to balance singing and designing as a full time job.
Moonchild hopes to one day work with Beyonce and Letta Mbulu and to open up her own record company for ‘girl’ singers. “I want it to be about talent and girls because these people struggle, the prettier you are, the more talented you are (the harder it is to get into the industry). I know these challenges and you constantly need to reject people, it’s very rare to find a guy who just wants to help you because of your talent. It’s always about what can you give them.”
Moonchild is widely recognised overseas, more so than in South Africa and says this is due to the fact South Africans are not ready to recognise that they are able to be pioneers. “They’re not ready to recognise their authentic originals inside the country. “They don’t recognise it because they need it to be stemmed by an international act who will never do future ghetto funk because they will never speak IsiXhosa, but until you find something similar to it or something that makes you feel attached to something or something that’s existing, you will be accepted. Until then South Africa does not appreciate its own originality.”
Moonchild will be releasing her first single 'Fox' from her third album 'Nix Nobuddy' at the end of March.
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