Singer-songwriter Holly Rey released a single, uMhlaba. The song comes out a day before the first episode of Celebrity MasterChef South Africa which Holly Rey is part of. Picture: hollyreymusic/Instagram
Today singer-songwriter Holly Rey released a single, uMhlaba, just one day before the first episode of Celebrity MasterChef South Africa which she is part of.
The freshly released ditty speaks to overcoming adversity.
It’s as though Rey was living the lyrics of the new song on the first episode of Celebrity MasterChef SA after one of the judges on the show told her that she can’t cook as well as she can sing.
“It kind of talks about how the world will try to bring you down but don’t allow them,” Rey told The Citizen.
She spoke to the publication at the media launch of the celebrity version of the cooking show in Cape Town on Thursday night.
In the first round of cooking in the first episode judge Justine Drake gave a chilling assessment of Rey’s cooking, saying the Deeper singer can’t cook as well as she can sing.
In the second round, Drake seemingly corrected herself in judging Rey’s food, being more benign.
“Justine felt really bad and she actually came up to me, when we cut for the scene and she was like ‘I’m really, really sorry. It just came out, I didn’t what I was saying’” shared Rey.
The other celebs on the episode are former Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana midfielder Reneilwe ‘Yeye’ Letsholonyane and broadcaster Prim Reddy,
Rey said the way that interaction was edited was to make it more dramatic. “I love Justine; I know her heart I know that’s not what she meant.”
The singer got back at the brutally honest judge when her second meal came out as planned, telling Drake that she can actually cook as well as she can sing.
“It’s just like the thing of perseverance. Don’t allow anything to stop you from your destiny; stopping you from doing what you want to do. You fail, you fail you get up and keep going.”
The other judges on Celebrity MasterChef SA are Zola Nene and Katlego Mlambo.
Rey said much like music, food played a big part in her upbringing.
In the first episode of Celebrity MasterChef SA, which starts on Saturday on S3 (formerly known as SABC 3), Rey’s grandmother speaks about a family recipe book that she received from her grandmother.
“My gran passed recipes to me that her gran gave to her, she passes them to my little sister…our culture as a family is very much around food and music, the two sort of like cores in our family,” the singer shared.
“It was really important to show that narrative because that’s where my love of food starts.”
Like most contestants who have experienced the heat in the MasterChef kitchen, Rey was taken aback by the intensity of trying to cook a meal in a short space of time.
A fan of the international TV show, Rey walked away from the cooking show with a sense of reverence for MasterChef contestants, especially because she’d lambast whatever the competing chefs were doing from the comfort of her home.
“As if we’re in the show and as if it’s so easy,” she said.
“I apologise profusely to every single contestant I shouted at through the TV because it is so hard. That is the fastest ticking clock in Africa-it ticks faster than a normal clock,” averred the Rey.
Together with her younger sister Mimi Wassersall, Rey won a South African Film and Television Award (Safta) in October for their TV series Baking With The Reys.
She said although she’s used to preparing something to eat on camera, she and her sister don’t have to deal with the pressure of time as she did on MasterChef.
“It’s laid back, we cook in our kitchen. This was a lot of pressure, I don’t do well being timed under pressure. I forgot who my own name was.”
In 2023 Rey became the first South African to win the Mzansi version of The Masked Singer.
Add that to her recent win at the South African Film and Television Awards, the singer is showing signs of possessing a lucky bone, but she couldn’t divulge whether she will also become a MasterChef celeb champion.
“Maybe I win MasterChef celebrity, I don’t know…we all have to watch to find out how far I can get.”
The award-winning muso was incorrectly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at the age of 11 which led to her being extremely ill and admitted to ICU with diabetes-related complications; she was then diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic.
“When I was an 11-year-old diabetic, I wish there was somebody like Holly Rey for me to look up to who could set an example to show me that I can do anything despite my chronic condition,” averred Rey about using her celebrity status for good.
Should Rey win, she has committed to sharing half of the R1 million prize pot with a charity of her choice, which is the non-profit organisation Sweet Life that empowers people with diabetes in South Africa.
“For me it’s really important to be on this show and talk about diabetes on a platform like this and then also play for a charity that does so much work, especially children living with diabetes in South Africa. It’s very close to my heart,” she said.
She has been an advocate for education and awareness of the disease. “I’ve lived through it, I know what the struggles are, so I can sympathise with the people that this money may go to.”
“Diabetes is the second biggest killer in South Africa; Not HIV, not GBV, it’s tuberculosis and diabetes second. It’s the biggest killer in women,” she said.
NOW READ: Pretoria school denies allegations of bullying as tributes pour in for TikTok’s ‘Teaboy
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
