South Africa’s rising stars: R&B singers to look out for
These five fresh new R&B artists are all women who bring the heat to their music with love, heartbreak and some sing-along tunes.
Amapiano, hip-hop and house music often dominate South Africa’s music scene which tends to leave R&B on the backburner. But Mzansi has some powerhouse R&B singers you may not yet know about.
Since the beginning of 2019 we’ve seen a rise in South Africa’s R&B genre with these artists having a rather high replay value to their music. The voices that have stepped onto the scene are fresh, unique and might be just what South Africa needs as R&B grows more.
1. Ayanda Jiya
Ayanda’s debut album Ayandastand is a head bopping fusion of R&B and jazz that features South African talents Ziyon, Stogie-T and A-Reece.
Her album debuted at #1 on iTunes and Google Play and she is arguably one of South Africa’s most promising voices in the country right now.
Ayanda has previously worked with Lucille Slade, Ralf Gum and Tellaman. Check out the stellar music video for The Sun by this R&B singer here:
2. Hunter Rose
A Rude World Records’ signing, Hunter Rose is a singer songwriter from Cape Town. The world first met her when she debuted on Expresso in 2019 with her songs Feels So Right and Let Me Go.
Her recent 8-track release titled Love & Trust is a stunning and soulful journey through love and its turmoil. She is featured on Apple Music’s We’re Loving set of albums and is also its Artist of the Month. You can listen to and watch her beautifully shot music video Grown here:
3. Ipeleng
Ipeleng takes us on a rollercoaster of a ride through her seven-track EP Unsolicited. She covers heartbreak, pain and mental health just to mention a few.
Before Unsolicited she released two EPs titled Reds + Blues and Better Apart and overed SZA, Halsey and The Weeknd on her SoundCloud. You can listen to her song Committed from Unsolicited here:
4. ThandoNje
Her album Frequency debuted at #1 on the Apple Music World Charts, and takes aim at topics of friendship and spirituality. ThandoNje’s vocals are soulful and easy on the ear.
She has previously collaborated with Muzi and A-Reece and after her own album collaborated with Jah Level to create An Ode to Jah.
You can listen to the R&B singer’s piece called Kenny’s Interlude here:
5. M’ax
M’ax’s debut album Based on a True Story is an album tackling themes of deep love and questioning relationships. Before this album she released a single titled For You.
M’ax’s music gives the feelings that it may take inspiration from 1990s R&B artists, such as Aliyah, Destiny’s Child and Cassie.
On her Instagram she wrote: “Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly and tell it as best as you can. Write what you love and write what you fear”.
Listen to More Than a Crush from her album here: