Durban - Described as a "woman of all trades", medical doctor, singer, songwriter and mother, Jerusha Naidoo, will launch her third album, Unstoppable, at The Square Boutique Hotel in uMhlanga on Thursday.
Through her latest R&B and pop album, which consists of 10 tracks, 39-year-old Naidoo hopes to inspire young women to work hard and follow their dreams to attain success.
“One of the tracks, Blesser, is aimed at cautioning young women to stop relying on older men for money.
"As a medical doctor, I am passionate about issues of health. The ‘blesser’ phenomenon, also known as transactional sex, is a major contributor to HIV and Aids.
"Our young women need platforms of inspiration and encouragement,” said Naidoo, who resides in Johannesburg.
The songstress, who hails from Chatsworth and is a consultant medical practitioner in the pharmaceutical industry, said she was inspired by her mother Sushila.
“She single-handedly raised me and my two younger sisters after my dad died. My mother provided us with the best quality of education. I admire her strength and what she went through to ensure we did not feel the absence of a father.”
Naidoo said her mother received a Fulbright scholarship to complete her master’s degree in community planning at the University of Cincinnati in US in 1990 and the family relocated with her.
“Being a teenager in the US was a massive contrast to what I was allowed to aspire to back home. I was entitled to freedom of thought and artistic expression on a different level.”
Naidoo said she fell in love with R&B, hip-hop and pop culture and that she was inspired by artists, including Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Andrea Bocelli and Barbara Streisand.
She made history as the first Indian woman to break into the mainstream music industry in South Africa in 2003.
Her debut single Are U The One? and For Life, off her debut album Got To Have It, established her as a local singing sensation.
Naidoo’s second album, JerushaLem, was released in 2009 and was nominated for Best Pop Album at the SAMA awards in 2010.
“It has taken me a long time to release an album because I had moved to the US and was focused on my medical career.”
Naidoo tied the knot with Rudy Onia, a pharmacologist, in Las Vegas in 2007 and lived there until 2012 when they decided it was time to start a family in SA.
They have a two-year-old daughter Mia and Naidoo is expecting her second child in May.
She said it was a challenge being a woman in a male dominated environment and she would release her upcoming album independently of major labels.
“I have composed and directed all works artistically and funded everything. For me success lies in the vindication that I can do this and be recognised because talent speaks for itself. Music makes me whole.”
Her album will be available on iTunes and iMusica from April 1.
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