Brenda Fassie is back in Soweto this weekend to thank her countless faithful fans for their support registered through massive sales of Memeza, her hot new album. Fassie has had a long relationship with this teeming city. For many years she’s traversed the length and breadth of the vast township, lauded by young and old. This is Brenda Fassie’s home.
Orlando Stadium is bound to be rocked to its very foundations when one of Africa’s most thrilling stage performers makes an appearance. She’ll be accompanied by fellow stars Rebecca Malope, Bongo Maffin, Pure Magic and Mfaz Omnyama. This line-up alone is enough to entice a whole range of music fans to the gig.
Malope also started out as a resident of Soweto at about the same time as Fassie. Then she was a pop star but later switched to gospel, her star rising to a dizzying height. Pure Magic was the band that started out as Malope’s backing group while making their own name as a band. The combination, under the able direction of producer Sizwe Zako, has worked like a charm. Both acts often outsell pop acts. Only they don’t make such a noise when they do. Like Fassie, Malope’s a survivor of the turbulent Eighties.
Maskanda guitarist Mfaz Omnyama is like a musical landmine. One day someone who knows a superstar when they see one will elevate him to global prominence. He has already given a few European countries a taste of real firey maskanda music. Singer Busi Mhlongo has utilised his talents on her new album and live tour. He is the most electrifying guitarist you’ll hear in a long time. His stage act has to be seen to be believed. When Mfaz takes to the stage, kuthula umoya (everything comes to a stand still, even the wind).
Bongo Maffin are winning hearts every day with their funky tunes and a deference to cultural sounds. They first caught attention with Makeba, a tribute to the grand mama of African song. Their current hit, That’ Sgubhu, has turned dance floors into sauna baths. Having learned first-hand from a wizard of stagecraft, they’re rightly up there with the best of the Nineties South African pop icons.
Soweto has always been the city where dreams could be made true – a launch pad to fame and possibly fortune. For musicians, it was the place to be if you needed a toehold in the door of record companies. It was here you could find some of the finest musicians to play with. Besides, with influx control laws in force, you had no choice if you happened to be black. It was either the townships or suburbia as a domestic servant. Many chose the rigours of a difficult and sometimes dangerous life in the township.
When Fassie arrived in Soweto, she nursed a dream, like many others before her, to make it big. Her powerful voice was her only ticket to Johannesburg. Her first taste of fame in big-time showbiz was with Joy, a top group of the time. She stood in for one absent member.
However, Soweto was yet to experience the full force of Fassie’s vocal power which took hold with her hit tune, Weekend Special. It was clear that she was no one- hit wonder. Soweto warmed to her. Fassie has always been loyal and in love with Soweto. It is the same city that made and nearly broke her. And now the spunkiest stage performer in the land is coming back to thank the city that turned her into an icon.
When Brenda Fassie and the Big Dudes were on stage at Jabulani or DOCC, Fun Valley or The Five Roses Bowl at Mofolo Park, Sowetans flocked there in droves. When she arrived from Cape Town, the country was under the state of emergency, army trucks rumbling in the townships. Somehow, the people of Soweto still made some of the most beautiful music in the world.
Competition was stiff. Around the same time Sakhile was born, later Bayete and Chicco came along, as well as Yvonne Chaka Chaka and the late Paul Ndlovu. From the word go, Fassie was different – very different – and her appeal to the public took root and has been growing. This, in spite of her Hollywood lifestyle.
She chose to live in Soweto when she could afford to live in a big suburban house. Her gates were always open. Friends and strangers alike could walk in to say hello. However, Soweto has not always been good to Fassie. The singer has been a practitioner of ubuntu which many have taken for granted. It shaped her and manipulated and loved her like no other. Now that she’s back in the limelight, the best place to relaunch her into the stratosphere is the home of stars and heroes, Soweto.
She is the only music star who, to this day, will drive around the townships dishing out sweets to children at every busy intersection. At the once popular Maponya corner in Orlando West, Baragwanath (now Chris Hani) hospital, Fassie would be surrounded by hundreds of people. She’d give free impromptu shows at street corners to her legion of fans.
Most of those who’ll descend on Orlando Stadium this weekend have probably seen her shows, on- and off-stage, a million times. But they’ll be there again as she belts out all the favourites including songs from Memeza, the most audible and funky national anthem of the moment. Dare to enter Soweto to go and witness one of the finest singers on the continent strut her stuff. The real thing!