Queening The Traditional Way

The hit song TsamaNdebele was a game changer or singer CANDY MOKWENA, 47. She chats about bouncing back from bankruptcy and building a business outside music.

- Phila Tyekana

Some people assume that Candy kicked off her music career only when she sang vocals on Oskido’s 2013 hit, TsamaNdebele. In fact, she’s the one who wrote that Metro FM award-winning song, which was nominated that year in the SA Music Awards’ (SAMAs) Record of the Year category. Candy began her career back in 1993, and over the past 24 years has worked with many renowned artists. Besides writing Kabelo Mabalane’s Majekeje, she also did the vocals. She collaborated with Brothers of Peace on Ma Bop, and was a backing singer for the band for three years.

Candy has also worked with Black Motion, Revolution, Trompies, Dr Malinga, Selaelo Selota and Mzilikazi wa Africa on his hit, Mahuwelele. She regards Afro-soul singer Ringo Madlingozi as her mentor and says that co-writing his song Baleka was a dream come true. “I’ve changed so many artists’ lives because they’ve had hits with the sound I brought to their music,” she says.

Her big break in 1993 was unexpected. She’d been earning R180 a month as a secretary at a tea farm in Tzaneen. She heard that the late Shangaan artist Peta Teanet, was holding auditions for singers. While waiting in the audition queue with her friend, Nurse, Candy’s loud laugh caught Peta’s attention. He came out to see who was the girl with the big voice – and immediately snapped her up.

“I hadn’t signed a contract, but that Monday I went to the tea farm and quit my job,” she says. “I worked with Peta as a songwriter on his double-platinum album, Nwa’yingwani.” That year, Candy and Nurse travelled to Joburg and signed with Papa Penny, working on his hit Shichangani. They launched their careers as Shaka Bundu Girls, with popular tracks like Hona Mo Soo and Hi July.