Singers with Unique Voices: Zolani Mahola of Freshlyground (The Unique Voices Club #25)

Every Friday, I write a post about singers with unique voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week I'm writing on Zolani Mahola, the former lead singer of Freshlyground.

Her 2023 promotional image. I love it!

I'm going back to South Africa this week for the Unique Voices Club, and will periodically in future posts. Because I grew up on the music so it makes perfect sense to write about artists from this country who, despite its many flaws (some of which I was privy to), created a wonderful tapestry of art and culture. The Afro-fusion pop band Freshlyground with its lead singer at the time Zolani Mahola was my introduction to the pop side of South African music (I had mostly grown up on the jazz up until that point).

The band has members with diverse backgrounds from South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and outside of there, including the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, the Zimbabwe National Orchestra, the township music band Mango Groove ("Shoo-Roop!" is my longtime jam), the UK and Ireland. A lot of them have a background in jazz. Zolani herself studied drama at the University of Cape Town and played the lead in an SABC1 drama.

Freshlyground released their debut Jika Jika in 2003, which resulted in an invitation to perform at the Harare International Festival of the Arts and the Robben Island African Festival as well as alongside Miriam Makeba. Nomvula, their sophomore, started off as a bit of a slow burn before getting double platinum status and nominations for three SAMAs (the South African version of the Grammys), winning the one for Best Group. I remember watching the awards that year (can't remember why as I was eight) and being excited out of my mind because they were the group that sang my favorite song at the time "Doo Be Doo". The band has released four albums and won more SAMAs (which included the popular song "Waka Waka" with Shakira for the 2010 World Cup) after that until they took a hiatus in 2019. They reemerged last year with a new lead singer and Zolani went solo, with the stage name The One Who Sings.

Zolani only realized she had a good singing voice in high school when she would sing in her plays, although her earlier influences were Motown and other stuff on the radio, the church, traditional community ceremonies and nature. Her voice carries the authenticity of a poet, lilting and weaving in and out of her registers with a slight jazzy feel. Her middle register sounds like a warm blanket, with her lower register sounding almost bluesy and with vibrato that reminds me of cat purrs. Her song "Theta Mama," complete with barebones guitar, has me wondering what a performance by an imbongi would be like. It sounds ceremonial and spiritual. Her music with Freshlyground was a lot more representative of South African as a whole but I think I love her new direction just as much. She has only one album and a single to her new stage name, but plenty of singles under her legal name. It's kind of weird having to rely on Spotify and other streaming services nowadays to keep up with the artists I used to love back when I lived in the same country as them because all I had to do in those days was turn on the radio. But yeah, if you're reading this post from outside of South Africa, go listen to Zolani Mahola's vast catalog of music. Her voice has become iconic in the music world there.

And that is that for this week on the Unique Voices Club! Thank you for travelling with me back to a bit of my childhood. And if you subscribe to my Patreon here, you actually have the opportunity to suggest unique artists for me to write about in the future. Share this blog, educate all the budding creatives in your life, and remember that there's power in the unconventional.

Stay educated,

Alexia