ByLwansta, Sho Madjozi and Sjava are some of the South African artists who've performed on COLORS. Pictures: pleasesaythe_by,shomadjozi, sjava_atm/Instagram
South African music sensation Tyla has probably cemented herself as the export of the year with the numbers she’s been racking up and records she’s been breaking on various platforms.
On Thursday she debuted her new single On and On, on German platform COLORS. ColorsxStudios, which is commonly known as COLORS, is a German music performance platform that aims at introducing and showcasing emerging and usually niche artists from all over the world.
21 year-old Tyla isn’t the first muso from Mzansi to perform on COLORS. Below are other South Africans that have made an appearance on the live performance music platform.
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ByLwansta is a rap artist from Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal who was the first South African to appear on COLORS in 2017. Real name Lwandile Nkanyuza, ByLwansta, performed his single Lindiwe on the COLORS music stage.
The opportunity to perform on the platform came when ByLwansta was one of the 10 recipients of the Goethe Talents Scholarship in 2017, spending 10 days in Berlin.
“In Berlin, you know, nobody knew who I was, nobody really had any expectations of me that I could disappoint, except those ground level ones that racism comes from, I was unashamed man,” said the artist in 2018.
“People were curious about what would come out my mouth, they’d never met me before, they had little to no references, they trusted me with their time, and in exchange, I gave them my story, and they ate it up.” said ByLwansta.
The Huku singer also made her appearance on the show in 2019. There she performed her global hit John Cena.
The song was so big that she also appeared on US tv show, The Kelly Clarkson Show in the same year where Sho Madjozi also performed and sat right next to the wrestler who her song is named after.
The Hip Hop artist who gets more plaudits for her artistry abroad than at home, performed her song Morbid Abukus on the platform in 2019 – the song is from her album Anima Mysterium of the same year.
Her style of Hip Hop can be described as alternative, which is the main reason for her minimal to non-existence on mainstream media. She released her debut album Return of the Astro-Goth in 2013.
“I’m an independent artist, pushing a certain lifestyle that may not be conducive to what is being pushed on TV. We’ve submitted tracks and videos to South African stations and international ones, and got a solid no,” she once said in an interview in 2018.
“‘No, this is not what we are looking for, for our channel.’ Not based on quality, it just doesn’t fit with what they’re trying to push at the moment.”
She was featured on the soundtrack of the Black Panther movie in 2018 on the song Opps.
The multi-talented artist performed his hit-track Mama on COLORS in 2019. This was a year after he made history by becoming the first South African musician to win the BET Viewer’s Choice Award.
Sjava‘s appearance was applauded by a number of South Africans
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