NALEDI Releases Debut Album “BATHO,” a Celebration of Community and Social Justice
South African artist and singer-songwriter, NALEDI, has released her debut album titled BATHO.
When it came time for NALEDI to name her urgent, heartfelt debut record, she thought of a word in her home language Sesotho: BATHO, people. It’s a title rich with significance for the singer-songwriter, who’s busy constructing a multi-disciplinary career and a wide artistic community spanning multiple continents.
“It’s been my theme the past couple of years when I perform,” explains NALEDI, now based in New York. “I share about my people — our stories, our rich history — and in doing so, I bring more people on that journey with me. Now that I’ve met you, shared a space with you, created music with you, you have become one of my people.”
NALEDI describes BATHO as both “an exploration of my communities and a call to action.” The record charts her vast journey in recent years. In 2018, the singer-songwriter moved nearly eight thousand miles away from South Africa to study jazz performance in Boston. As she embarked on life at a new school and in a new country, she leaned into music’s ability to ward off homesickness and access a place of comfort.
“I was feeling really nervous about moving to the U.S.,” she says. “I was really concerned I wasn’t going to sound like home anymore. And I love what my home sounds like. I love the home in my voice.
BATHO album art
“One of my mentors, he said to me, your voice is not just your own. Voice is the only instrument that is DNA — it’s also your grandmother’s voice, your great grandmother’s voice. Everywhere you go, you’re carrying their voices with you.”
Singing, in other words, becomes a way of communing with the people we call home. That helps explain the magic of BATHO. Through five original pieces, one breathtaking arrangement and singing in five different languages, NALEDI creates a space of belonging, reflecting on how she grounds herself in an ever changing world.
Also central to this journey, she emphasizes, is a focus on social justice, which she uses to find connections between her home in South Africa and her new surroundings in the U.S.
“I can’t speak about my people and my story, especially being in the first generation of children born after apartheid in South Africa, without speaking to the injustices elsewhere in this world,” she says. “We’re all fighting similar fights. We’re all human at the end of the day.”
Join NALEDI as she celebrates the release of her debut EP, BATHO, at The Sultan Room, Brooklyn on July 28th. This special evening promises to be an intimate and unforgettable experience, filled with the rich sounds and heartfelt stories that define her music.