Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was a South African anti-apartheid Afropop singer born on November 3, 1964, in Langa, Cape Town.
Her bold stage antics earned her a reputation for “outrageousness”.
She died on May 9, 2004 in Johannesburg after spending two weeks in a coma.
Her death was reported to have been caused by a cocaine overdose.
She was named after the American country singer Brenda Lee.
As the daughter of a pianist, Brenda began singing to her mother’s accompaniment at a very young age.
At the age of five, she already had tourists paying to hear her sing.
The producer Koloi Lebona heard about Brenda and brought her to Soweto to live with his family.
She soon joined the group Joy and later formed her own band Brenda and the Big Dudes.
Her singing career skyrocketed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In March 2006, a bronze scultpute of her was unveiled in the Johannesburg theatre district of Newtown.
The life-size statue of Fassie sits on a barstool with a microphone in front of her.
A stool next to her invites passers-by to take a seat and “chill” for a while with the diva outside the Bassline jazz club.
Artist Angus Taylor said, when the sculpture was unveiled, he created the sculpture with a stool next to it to encourage people to interact with the artwork.
He added that he had taken many of Fassie’s quotes and embossed them in the bronze in tiny letters, making the sculpture even more interactive, as passers-by have to get up close to read them.
(Photo from becausethisisafrica.blogspot)
