Long before she became the host of one of South Africa’s most successful reality shows, Andile Gaelesiwe’s voice used to be the life of the party at street bashes and clubs.
Far from her career on reality show Khumbulekhaya, Andile also took the local music industry by storm when she released her first single, Abuti. It was basically an ode to that particular brother who used to drive her off the wall.
We specifically remember the rather interesting music video of Andile dressed in a somewhat tight leather outfit, surrounded by half-naked men as she seductively danced to the camera with her signature blonde hair. Come to think of it, she was like our very own Mary J. Blige.
We thoroughly enjoyed listening to this song back in the day, even though we now cringe when thinking about THAT video - but then again, most music videos from the 90s have that cringing effect on us now. From the disastrous hairstyles to the terrible outfits, the 90s might well have been our last golden years, but there was definitely nothing golden about the era’s fashion sense.
Andile’s single also reminds us of yet another lady who had a great, yet short, run in the music industry - Durban-based singer Ntokozo. Ntokozo, who added some flavour to the South African R&B scene at the time, used to have us debating about her gorgeous hair and if it was actually real. If you happen to know or bump into Ntokozo, please ask her if she discovered the magic of a good weave before other South African women did?