A lesser known fact about legendary actor Dumisani Dlamini is the fact that he lived in the United States for about 15 years after doing a tour of the stage version of Sarafina!, well he fell in love with an American woman and had two children.
Dlamini, who is most notably known for his roles as Chester on Yizo Yizo and Mbodla on Isibaya, fell in love with a Jewish-American woman named Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer, with whom he had two children – a boy and a girl.
His 22-year-old daughter, Amala Zandile Dlamini, now goes by the name Doja Cat and is a rising star in the American music scene where he mostly makes R&B, pop and alternative music.
Speaking to Times Live, Dlamini stated “… beautiful girl (who goes by) the name Doja Cat, she’s singing with Nicki Minaj. If you google you will see, it’s D. O. J. A. C. A. T, she’s one of the best singers now in America. That’s my daughter.”
He moved back home citing severe homesickness and had planned to bring his family here but things did not go according to plan. He has however maintained a close relationship with his family.
Doja Cat released her first single in 2013 and later signed to RCA Records in March 2014 where she released her debut EP, titled Purrr!
American music publication, Vibe, described her as an “18-year-old psychedelic prodigy” when they premiered the video for her hit single, ‘So High’ in 2014. The song was featured on the Empire soundtrack (Season 1, Episode 3) and has to date, received nearly 18 million streams on Spotify and millions more on Soundcloud, while the video had garnered 14 million views on Vevo/YouTube.
Earlier this year, she released her first full-length album, titled Amala.
She currently has a single out titled ‘Moo’ doing the rounds and it seems to be doing well on social media.
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Main image credit: instagram.com/dojacat/
