In honour of South African classics
CONSTANTIA KLOOF – Local artist teams up with fellow musician to create renditions in honour of Afrikaans music.
Justin Serrao (28), an artist born and raised in Constantia Kloof, has begun a new project with friend, Regardt Scheepers, where they sing legendary Afrikaans songs.
Serrao is well-known for his original English country pop music but with regards to his decision to sing in Afrikaans, he said, “It is to pay tribute to these legends and founders of our proudly South African industry. We will be releasing a series of the greatest Afrikaans songs over the next year. We are really excited about this project and it gives us goosebumps when we do it right.” The duo has jump-started this series of music with Afrikaans icon Koos du Plessis’ timeless classic, Kinders van die wind.
On singing in Afrikaans, Serrao explained, “It is definitely a big change with rolling the ‘Rs’ and getting those ‘Gs’ right in singing but I do remember these songs as a kid from my mother playing them. Absolutely these songs hold special meaning for me as they are so deep and everyone holds emotion with them. I want to do the songs that I remember.”
Although Serrao would not say what single we can expect next, he did say the series will include Skip Skop, Silver Delange and Tussen Traine.
Experience their version of Kinders van die wind here: https://youtu.be/4itnPY4Rtlo
Serrao’s journey began in primary school, where he sang punk rock songs with his brothers and friends but when he got to high school, he began to take singing more seriously. “Funny thing is people used to laugh at my high pitch voice. Looking back now, so did I,” Serrao added.
To date, Serrao has had the opportunity to tour South Africa and the United Kingdom with the Parlotones, has released two albums and plays hundreds of shows a year, yet Serrao still feels he is still fighting the great battle to get his music heard.
In music, Serrao is most proud of being able to create platforms for younger musicians to perform and get exposure, such as The Battle for the Breedlove, a singer-songwriter competition Serrao hosted two years back. His advice to young artists is to keep writing and play any show possible; be nice and focus on small goals.
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