Nompumelelo ‘Indlovukazi’ Ndlovu with her gong from the PanSALB Multilingualism Awards. Picture: indlovukazimusic/ Instagram
Without a hit single, musicians tend to get ignored.
Singer Nompumelelo ‘Indlovukazi’ Ndlovu was recognised for belting out in her siSwati Language by the Pan African Language Board (PanSALB) in a glitzy awards ceremony at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) in KwaZulu-Natal..
“I feel like I’m not recognised and not seen sometimes. It hurts me, but this is so encouraging,” Indlovukazi told The Citizen.
Established in 2002, the PanSALB Multilingualism Awards were established in 2002 to recognise individuals and organisations that have made exceptional contributions to preserve and promote all official languages in South Africa, including Khoi and San languages.
“When they told me about this award I called them back to make sure that it’s me they wanted, I couldn’t believe it said the singer. Indlovukazi’s was featured on one of Prince Kaybee’s biggest songs, Gugulethu.
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The awards are aimed at celebrating linguistic diversity and raising awareness of the role of languages as a unifying agent in the country.
The PanSALB Multilingualism Awards recognise people in various fields; media, literature, technology and education. Indlovukazi was recognised in the Effective Use of Mother Tongue in Music category, where musos sing in indigenous languages.
Musicians Mandisi Dyantyi, Fancy Galada and Zuko Kupiso were recognised for their use of IsiXhosa in their music. Kegomoditswe Phiri (Nanas) was awarded for having Setswana in her music.
“It felt good being there [at the awards], it felt so corporate and serious – it was quite high profile. But it was also quite welcoming for artists, as you know we don’t like the formal things, but it was good,” said the Indlovukazi.
Last year Gugulethu was covered on Clash of The Choirs SA and the singer was pleased with how well her language was sang.
“You know, SiSwati is not one of the languages that you always hear in music. So seeing and hearing people singing in SiSwati, fluently, I was so happy. My aim as a songwriter is to get SiSwati out there, we don’t have a lot of SiSwati singers.”
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In January she performed at her husband’s art exhibition in Cape Town and she told The Citizen that sales made from the exhibition, will go into her paying for studio time. Her husband is Thandazani Ndlovu.
“He’s one person that’s always pushing me to record. When he sells a painting he says ‘this one is for studio time’,” said Indlovukazi at the time.
She said her win from the PanSALB Multilingualism Awards has encouraged her to write more music.
“I’ve already started recording, I know my album will be done in June. I’m encouraged by this award,” said the vocalist.
“The album will have both dance and afro soul, jazz sounds because some people know me from the House [genre], while others know that I also sing with a band.”
Indlovukazi is also excepted to release a single at the end of March.
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