The positive response we received from our readers led us to find and do an interview with Nelisiwe Sibiya. The songbird behind the songs on Lock Down.
If you head on over to Nelisiwe's Instagram account you will be quick to learn that the young lady was born to be a performer. Her love for the arts has allowed her to share her talent with the rest of South Africa, we recently caught up with the singer and actress to find out more about her.
Her singing voice is loved by many ever since they heard her songs on Lock Down, the singer admits that she did not expect such a positive feedback from the public.
"Honestly, I didn't expect any of this, from the response I was receiving about the Lockdown Soundtrack I just could not believe it and it still hasn't sunk in. Every Mondays and Sundays I knew I'd always get tagged on people's status updates explaining how much the music on Lockdown touches them and how much they love the sound track."
That song on #MzansiLockdown is very touchy 😢😢. Can anyone send it to me?
— Princess Pearl (@pearl13510034) April 9, 2017
"Everyone was just excited and motivating me to record more or even release something because of the different sounds I have. I remember when Mandla N asked me to work with him I was so excited but I didn't think it would turn out to be this big, especially because during that time I was really not fine at all. I recorded the songs 3 days after I buried my mother, you can imagine the emotions I was going through but I guess it's about time I became who I am meant to be. In this life, we all have what we are called for and with me, music and performing happened to be my calling."
A lot of you have been asking us where you can download Nelisiwe's song "Wemama KaBafana" we asked the singer where you can get her songs and here's what she had to say:
"Unfortunately the songs are not out yet, so you can't download them anywhere at the moment. last time I had a chat with JRoss which is the man behind the music he informed me that The lockdown album is due for release in August. I am still working towards having my music out there but so far I only have my singing videos on Instagram which is where Mandla N discovered me from. Thank God for social media. I'll inform everyone about the downloads as soon as I have further information."
Nelisiwe also informed us that she will release a full album but she's not in a hurry as she's still studying as a full-time final year Musical Theatre student at T.U.T. If you've checked her Instagram account you'll also realise that she refers to herself as the Maskandi Queen, a nickname given to her by her late mother
My mother called me the Queen of Maskandi because of the love I have for MASKANDI and she made sure that it sinks in before she passed on. I might look like this glamorous girl but I am a typical Zulu girl at heart and I am going to stick to my MASKANDI sound because that's who I am.
Nelisiwe currently performs on Sarafina! the musical and has described the experience as amazing and working with Dr Mbongeni Ngema has taught her a lot about the craft.
On Sarafina, Nelisiwe works alongside former Idols SA contestant Sonke and Buhle Dube from the Dube Brothers. She considers those to as her closest friends whom she auditioned with.
Those two are my buddies, we went through the auditions process of Sarafina which took more than 4 months together and I have been more inspired by them because I could see the drive and passion they have for performing. I have worked with Sonke so many times before.
We have been pushing this music thing from years back and so is Buhle. As much as we are the New Sarafina generation I also believe we are the Industry's New Generation as well.
Asked if we'll expect to see her on Lock Down in the future, the young actress laughed and said that we'll just have to wait and see and that she needs to audition first.
Main Image Credit: Instagram/@Nelisiwe_Phaith_Sibiya