GET TO KNOW: Singer/songwriter Yallunder whose voice is fast dominating the scene one song at a time
In just three years of her official mark within the music industry, 29-year-old Yallunder has bagged herself her very first SAMA award – for the Ndinovalo remix with Mörda. And while her star keeps peaking higher and higher, a lot has happened in just 36 months of actively singing.
Real name Yolanda Nyembezi, the star moved from being signed under Sjava’s record label 1020 Cartel to deciding going independent, she has collaborated with the most prolific musicians Mzansi has to offer to bagging her first gong, this first part of her journey has proven to be the most interesting the singer has ever had.
She joined the industry in 2018 as an intern at the Gauteng Opera after studying music at the University of Tshwane – majoring in Opera. While interning, she started doing covers of songs and that is how she got discovered by Black Coffee and Sjava. 2020 marked the first official record that I released. Her name is now associated with the likes of Oskido, Heavy K, Kabza de Small and DeMthuda among others.
The star released her album Kum in August and in just three months released her newest single ‘Mali’, as a sign of the amount of music that she has ready to be consumed, she shares.
“On a personal note, there’s a lot that has happened until now and music has been there. Mali was completed in 2021 already but timing is everything. My current management team advised that now is the time because it’s a hit.
This muso who is fast on the rise chit chatted with us. Peep into her journey thus far to get closer to the voice behind the songs that have kept us moving.
Enjoy!
Tell us about your growing up? I am the 9th child of 12 (yes 12) and I grew up relatively shy. So shy that my parents are shocked that I chose music as a career. I grew up relatively comfortably but was bullied for how I looked. That led to isolating a lot and only spoke when spoken to, a late bloomer, never good at sports and my light shined a lot in the classroom. My life revolved around school and church, and there weren’t many friends around.
When you studied music, was a singing career ever part of the plan? I knew music was a huge part of my life because of how much it dominated my upbringing. My grandmother influenced my father’s taste and in turn he influenced us, and exposed us to genres that we didn’t even know existed. But when I studied music, I just wanted to work within that industry but never be at the forefront. But I find so much freedom in this art form. I can get on stage and sing for a 1000 people but the real Yolanda could never interact with that many people.
Why did you decide on spelling your name Yallunder? There’s no genius story behind it except when I was creating an X (twitter) account, it suggested different names to me because mine was already taken. I played around with it and came up with this song. When a Black Coffee cover blew up, articles that came up carried that name because of twitter. It was too late to change that so I let it be.
Why did you decide to go independent? Jumping into the independent steering wheel, I was never ready and I didn’t know what I was doing. I won’t lie to you. (LOL) I don’t think I had enough time with 1020 Cartel to learn but something within me convinced me that I can do it. Three months after sending emails to various distribution companies, especially because I had been recording music and just needed to release. Kum was given a chance by a distribution company and that’s when I registered a record company. It gets lonely, I won’t lie. There is zero advice on how to arrange music nor are there people to bounce off ideas of. But it is also a challenge of trusting myself more. I have to do it by myself and make things happen.
Has the reception shocked you? I thought I won’t have that much support in terms of listenership and before that, I thought people cared only because of my association. But people are there and are listening. People are waiting for the music, not because of any record label but are listening out for great music.
Looking at how far you have come, how does it feel? It’s so funny that three years has given me so much. Back then it seemed like you needed to do so much more to get to this point – especially with the fact that the first two years we were stuck in lockdown. No work. During that time, there were so many regrets because it didn’t seem like my career was going anywhere but look at me now. I stuck to my guns and a lot of good is coming my way now. I am impressed at all that is happening.
How much more can people expect? A lot. So much more music is coming out, I have another song ready to release with DeMthuda this coming Friday dubbed iMali. I have been working hard at work and I believe so many more songs will be released soon. I worked with Oskido on two songs off his current project and also with Kelvin Momo. Before the end of the year, a lot is coming.
