A Life Fully Lived: Zahara’s Rise and Impact on South African Music
The sunset of East London-born singer-songwriter Zahara, born Bulelwa Mkutukana, is one looked on by many followers with nostalgic fondness and a sense of gratefulness for a talent well-spent. From being a product of the Phumulani Informal Settlement to raking up a ground-breaking number of awards and records with her debut album, her rags-to-riches story is the stuff of underdog legends.
Zahara, whose stage name means “to shine or to flower” in Hebrew and Arabic, started her singing journey at the tender age of six. After a contract with TS Records took her off the streets of East London, her debut album, Loliwe, soon followed in 2011. The album, which spawned earworms such as “Loliwe”, “Lengoma” and “Ndiza, garnered critical and commercial success, reaching gold status for moving more the 20 000 copies in the space of three days. The album is the country’s fastest-selling in music history, second only to Memeza by the late great Brenda Fassie.
The following year, at the 18th Annual SAMA Awards, the songbird made a memorable sweep, making off with a whooping eight awards, including Album of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Best Newcomer of the Year.
Her sophomore album, Phendula, dropped in 2013 and turned heads with its singles “Phendula” and “Impilo”, and it scooped three SAMA Awards, including Best Female Artist of the Year. She went on to release three more albums, namely: Country Girl (2015), Mgodi (2017), and Nqaba Yam (2021).
The guitar-wielding canary’s last single came in 2021, in the form of “Nyamezela”.
With five albums in her discography, Zahara will live forever in the hearts and souls of her listeners, having made an indelible mark with her songs of celebration, sorrow, and the nuanced truth of what it is to love and to be loved. Having passed on at the age of 36, hers is a life fully lived and her death, a low, is merely a reminder of all the high notes she hit when she graced the world at her best.
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