The Reanimation of the Unstoppable Force That Is Singer-Songwriter Maline Aura
She turned heads and piqued the interest of ears nationwide with the drop of “Mabebuza” in 2022, proclaiming her arrival in the music industry and daring to announce herself as the future. Singer-songwriter Thandolwethu Nkomo, popularly known as Maline Aura, has applied pressure on the accelerator once more, returning with a multi-genre pack of remixes – in the shape of an extended play – twisted from the single which earned her a place in the game. Wiser and more experienced now, Maline’s journey has not been an easy one; however, every step she has taken has been of purpose, of finding definition, and of making a lasting contribution rather than being a flash in the pan.
Hailing from the kasi of Gamalakhe in the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, the vocalist took it all the way back to the days of being a little girl. Pressing rewind, she spoke about her foundation and how the hotbed of a music-loving family and old-school influences infused the love for music into the young and impressionable Thandolwethu.
“My passion for music started at home. My dad and aunt were huge influences when it came to my love for music. They were collectors of CDs, and they always played music. Every day, including weekends. I remember my dad vividly playing his CDs in the car during long-distance trips, and it was through him that I came to love Oliver Mtukudzi and Maskandi music. My aunt on the other hand was into people like Brandy,” she said.
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True to the saying, “Monkey see, monkey do,” Maline fanned into the flame of her penchant for making music by rewriting songs she loved as she listened to them, studying those ahead of her by imitating their rhythms and copying their compositions. From joining the school choirs through the years to studying the artform as a discipline at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), she spoke about the subtle evolution of her abilities.
“I remember writing down the lyrics of the songs I was listening to just learn the song. When I was able to download songs, I would play-and-pause them to listen and rewrite the lyrics. That phase of my life is where the love for music started to turn into songwriting. When it comes to singing, later on, I started doing that in Grade 3. I wasn’t doing it professionally, but I was in the school choir back then all the way up until Matric. So, I grew into the passion till I decided to go and study Music at the University of UKZN, which gave me broader background in music, and it made me realise I wanted to make it an actual career,” she said.
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On the 6th of August 2025, Maline unleashed Mabebuza (Remix Pack), reimagining the single the EP is named after in three different ways and breathing fresher life into the original idea. Far more than succumbing to the lure of nostalgia, Aura described her going back to “Mabebuza” with the intention of rereleasing the song across different genres as an act of reviving a song she felt deserved more love during its initial run.
“I decided to drop a pack of ‘Mabebuza’ because I felt like people slept the song when I released it and that it needed to be revived in a way. I dropped it almost three years ago on my first EP, and it did so well and it got love, but I realised that it didn’t reach a lot of people, you know? The vocals on the song mean so much to me, and the process of writing the song was so hard in itself, and I felt it should’ve gotten more traction. Yes, it did well, but I felt it was too phenomenal for it to not have reached the status of a hit countrywide. I felt like more people needed to hear it. So I opted to make a pack of the songs to give it a new life since it’s been three years and sounds dominating the industry have changed a lot. The sounds that I enjoy the most right now, such as 3 Step and Amapiano, I wanted to put myself in that and to reinvent the song using those genres,” she said.
With the respective expertise of producers such as MDU aka TRP, &Lez, Atmos Blaq, Maline was able to reimagine what “Mabebuza” could sound like in different sonic outfits. She spoke about the creation process behind reanimating her song.
“I was specific about genres I wanted to use for the remixes. In a way, I was testing waters with this EP because I found myself wondering how the song would feel like as a Piano track. And MDU just blew my mind with his interpretation of the song, and he made the song sound like it was the original and not a remake. In fact, all the songs in the pack felt like actual originals when I listen to the way the vocals mesh with the production seamlessly. That’s why I wanted to work with these guys specifically – I wanted to work with the ghosts of each sound. You’ve got Atmos Blaq representing the 3 Step wave well with his remake; you’ve got MDU who took the song to another level with his Piano, and people have been showing love to his version, which is what I wanted with the remix pack. I wanted the EP to be able to play a part in pushing the cultures of the respective genres forward,” she said.
Check out “Mabebuza (MDU aka TRP Remix)”:
Besides the release of her remix mini collection, she revealed some of her plans for the remainder of the year.
“I’m currently working on a new song I want to release for the summer. For the rest of the year, I’ve got a couple of songs coming out where I’m a feature. I’m actually on quite a lot of albums by other people. But most of my work for the rest of 2025 will just be features on music by Atmos Blaq, Da Capo, Nhlakzin, and Thackzin. I’ve also got some features in Europe coming out, so there’s a lot on the way,” she said.
Aura spoke at length about her various musical influences, from the artists that shaped her to how studying music at tertiary helped her level up her attributes of musicianship.
“Before I recorded my first song as a professional, I listened to a lot of Samthing Soweto, as far as South African influences are concerned by the way. Brenda Fassie, believe it or not, influenced me a lot, especially in the way that I write. I also used to be on a lot of Ami Faku, Msaki, and Simmy – the girls in the Afro space. I would say that those artists paved the way for me and made me feel like I could do this because of how effortless they made it look.
“Another influence is my Degree in Music. While pursuing it, we were forced to listen to a broader range of music like jazz from your Robert Glaspers and pop from the Michael Jacksons of the world. That broadened my mind and my influences. And for the longest of times, that made me so scared because it made me so versatile, and that made me scared that it would affect the whole notion of a vocalist needing to have a certain sound. Because of that I’m also not the type of person to listen to one genre all the time, so I listen to anything and everything that I enjoy,” she said.
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The songbird emphasised the importance of making original music by keeping her mind open to cosmopolitan influences and avoiding the trap of sounding like other artists in an otherwise over-saturated market of vocalists.
“I think the most important thing I keep doing to continue growing is how I open myself up to listening to other people’s music. I feel that’s really important. As an artist, you shouldn’t be only listening to yourself. There are people like that, people who can’t listen to anything else but themselves and their specific genre. I listen to Afrohouse even when I’m not on it – it’s on my playlist. I think that doing that helps me to understand everything behind it. I do it for other genres as well such as Amapiano. It’s also important to do this because it helps you to see where the gap is, a space that needs to be filled. Because here in South Africa, there are so many us vocalists and I’m not sure if there’s enough space for us all. That’s how you find a thing where artists don’t last long enough. There’s a lot of artists going into the game having not schooled themselves on their genre and the game, and so they don’t know the gaps that need to be filled and maneuvered through, and so they end up imitating people already big in the space. It’s good to be inspired but it should remain like that: an inspiration,” she said.
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Maline Aura expressed the vitality of pressing on and staying true to herself and her road hard as it may be with desires of going commercial.
“Everyone wants to be famous and for their works to be heard. My journey hasn’t been the easiest or the fastest because I’ve been doing this since 2016. But I always remind myself that while it’s amazing to blow up, you must be careful of how it happens and what you get famous for. I always keep that in mind. I’ve watched my fellow peers literally start and blow up in a month. This would make sit and ask myself what I was doing wrong. But at the same time, our processes all differ. Maybe my path is different for a certain reason. I remember this one time having a conversation with Da Capo because I was stressing about this and my music not going mainstream, and then he asked me, ‘Do you want to be a fly-by-night artist, do you want to blow up now and have people forget about you in a year, or do you want to last in the industry?’ And that made me think and realise that it’s all good. If you wanna make pure and lasting music, you can’t be searching for hits. That must happen on its own when you hit the studio. There’s no memorandum for making a hit. But there are people like that,” she said.
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Maline talked about her visions of being a mother someday and being a boss woman other women can look to in the industry.
“Years from today, I see myself as a mom, and that’s something I’ve been thinking about lately – but I’m not ready for that now obviously. I also picture myself as a powerhouse empowering women, especially in the industry. Our space is very male-dominated and its hard negotiating through as a beautiful woman because you get sexualised a lot and it’s ridiculous. I want to show women that they don’t have to be scared. To be impactful and to be a go-to person for the girlies, a bit like how DJ Zinhle is – I love her so much. I love how inspiring she is, and it’s how I picture myself being in the future,” she said.