Jive with The Wife

They didn’t have to go as hard as they did! Forget the gold G Wagon the most Gucci thing about the Zulus’ lives is their soundtrack.

- GENEVIEVE TERBLANCHE

If music is the food of love, hardcore fans of Showmax original series The Wife have been feasting. For two seasons (so far) we've been served more South African sizzle than a shisanyama. Fans have flooded search engines to track down "that" track in each episode.

"You can't mention The Wife and not speak about the music and the sound design that went into the series," insists series creative director Fikile Mogodi. "We looked at local artists that could give us the nuances and the flavours that could speak to the emotions being showcased on the show... You can see a scene that's shot between two normal people just talking. If it's a silent scene, it's just two people talking.

Immediately after you introduce a texture of music to it, you take it to a totally different thing." The legal and financial complexities surrounding music rights and artists' residuals in streaming series have, alas, bitten the production team. So yes, things are a little different in season 3. But we're still getting swept up by expert hands. Andile "Anzo" Ngubeni's beloved theme tune remains. And the rest of this season's score is made up of original tracks by composer and sound designer Brendan Jury, who's been guiding us through The Wife with his scores from day one. He's the guy who created Zandile's epic and romantic theme tune, The Wife Zandile True Love, in collaboration with Monde Msutwana. We know to brace ourselves for big emotions when we hear those bars during an episode...

5 SONGS & SCENES TO CELEBRATE

For an in-depth look at music in The Wife, your must-watch is episode 6 of the documentary series The Wife - Behind The Veil. 

1 THE SONG: UBUSUKU BONKE