Quick Chat with Zoë Modiga about the upcoming FNB Inaugural Pop Opera and new music.

Quick Chat with Zoë Modiga about the upcoming FNB Inaugural Pop Opera and new music.

Music has been really kind to Zoë this year, with the star being booked and busy. Among the many gigs she has been blessed to adorn is the upcoming FNB Inaugural Pop Opera Concert, taking place at the Mose Mabida stadium this Saturday. 

The powerhouse joins an array of other artists like Grammy award winners Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode, DJ Tira and Shekinah – among others. 

She describes the year as an explorative, vast and plentiful musical journey thus far while she has been quietly recording her third musical offering that succeeds her successful 2020 release Inganekwane. The Opera is another career mark that she is preparing for.

“I’ve always enjoyed being a part of big musical ensembles and I have a profound love for big band and orchestral music. The bonus is being able to do this on my homeground as a KZN native for the first time. Music is a powerful way of bringing people together from all walks of life and I’m open to that experience as well. Now, if that’s not an extravaganza I don’t know what is,” adding that fans can expect a great time from her. 

Zoe, who has been dubbed a live performance queen, deems live shows as a place where one gets to co-create a magical moment with music lovers in real time. 

“We get to collectively breathe different life into the music and I absolutely love that.

“Preparation for any performance depends on the assignment. My checklist is knowing the songs and establishing a personalized meaning for myself, choreographing movement and performance, planning my image – make up, costuming – and having my quiet before performances where I warm up and meditate into the mindset needed for the show,” she said.

About what music means to her this year, she said: “Music has been the good friend that walks alongside me and that takes me in as I am. It creates meaning for me, I’ve seen some of my loudest challenges and silent victories with it this year. 

“Music has afforded me so many opportunities like being a speaker and taste maker in panel discussions, performing alongside dynamic women, traveling out the country for performances and currently rolling out my national Cos Cos Tour to wrap up my Inganekwane Era.

The end of that era will usher in new music that she said she has been working on and said when the time is right and it is ready to be served, it will be released.

“I genuinely don’t make the rules and I just follow as I am led through the processes. 

“All in all, Grateful for the past, trying to live in the moment and planning miles ahead. That’s me right now.