Wave making South African music stars, Mafikizolo revealed why they didn’t marry each other

Mafikizolo

Rave South African music group Mafikizolo is no doubt a household name in Nigeria and other African countries. In this chat culled by SHOWBIZPLUSng, the ‘Khona’, ‘Tchelete (Good Life)’ and ‘Happiness’ crooners spoke on a wide range of trending issues, especially reasons they did not date nor marry themselves despite being together for over decade.

How does it feel to be in Nigeria?

We feel so good to be in Nigeria. This is our second home now. Since we started coming here, we have never been to another country or place so many times like Nigeria. We were opportune to work with May D when we were working on our last album Re-united. He was actually a fan of our work and he knew how big we were back in South Africa. He knew how we were scooping awards back home for best collaboration at every award. We worked with May D and to our great surprise it became a very big song not only in Nigeria, but everywhere in Africa. It was a great blessing for us.

Tells us how you met May D and Davido because you did a song with Davido recently?

It was just a coincidence. I told you about May D already knowing how big we were in South Africa. We feel he wanted to use a collaboration with us to connect with his South African fans and we grabbed it too because we wanted a big break in Nigeria. Davido was purely by luck, we met, we recorded and that was it.

Now that your songs are hits in Nigeria, how does that make you feel?

It feels great. We have been doing music for a long time now and we have conquered South Africa and its surroundings. We wanted to break into the Nigerian market. We sat down and discussed it and we concluded that it was going to be a huge feat for us. Breaking into the Nigerian market was a dream come true for us. It made us really proud and fulfilled and we are really happy to have done it. We are enjoying every bit of it.   

How many times have you performed in Nigeria?

We have performed in Nigeria about six to seven times although it is not really at a big event. Just small events and we have enjoyed it so far. We are looking forward to bigger ones.

Are you guys planning a concert anytime soon in Nigeria?

We would love to have a music tour with Nigerian artistes and perform all around the country. See different cities, different people and all that. That will be a huge feat also because we don’t think any South Africa has been able to do that. A tour with Nigerian artistes like Davido, Burna Boy, Mr. May D and others will be good.

Why did it take you guys so long to collaborate with a Nigerian artiste?

 

It was just the timing. Because of the advent of social media and the internet you can connect with anybody anywhere in the world without even seeing the person. As an artiste you can record a song with another artiste far away without actually being in the same studio with the person. There is a music revolution music going on right now. Times are changing. Years ago it was very difficult to get other African music. From South Africa, getting Nigerian, Kenyan or Tanzanian music in the market or store was difficult then; but now with iTunes and technology of today anybody anywhere can get any music he or she wants.

 

Mafikizolo is known as a Kwaito group, did you guys invent it or a popular genre you keyed into?

Kwaito has long been in existence before we started music. It is a genre of music that makes use of African sounds and samples. It emerged in South Africa during the 1990s when we were fighting for democracy. Kwaito was the best way of expressing feelings, so Kwaito was a good outlet.

 

When Hip Hop and contemporary music started becoming big in South Africa, did you guys feel threatened?

 Yes, we were threatened. When you are successful with anything, times, evolution come up with new trends that threatens your business model. But you have to go along with the trends. We have succeeded in fusing our style with Hip Hop which gave our sound a different feel.

Your debut album was in 1997; now with eight albums, what is the secret of your successes so far?

We respect our fans a lot which is the first and most important thing. It also takes a lot of hard work; we love working together, we love what we do and that is what has kept us going.

How did two of you come together to form this group?

 We all grew up together and resided in the same street, we had same interest which is music. Growing up as kids we used to involve in many activities like miming, dancing competition and singing so we decided to put together a demo, which we sent to Kalawa Music Company. That was how we got signed and from there Mafikizolo became a household name.

A lot of people have been eager to know your relationship status as a group, are you two a couple?

 

We’re just a music couple and we are married to different people. We are a professional couple, we work together, she’s married to someone else, I’m married to some else. But we’re very good partners, brother and sister.

 

Why didn’t you two marry each other?

It never came to our minds; we saw each other more as brother and sister so marriage never came to our minds. We were both more concerned with looking out for each other and making sure we were both happy with where we are.

 

Fans didn’t see you two coming back together after splitting to have successful solo careers; what brought you two back again?

 

I’ll say the love and the brand ‘Mafikizolo’ we already built. We were one of the biggest brands created by our record company Kalawa. Even when we split to have our solo careers we also knew we needed to respect the brand. So after dropping albums separately we had to come back. Letting the group die after so many successes and hard work was not a good idea.

 

You were three in the group before losing a member in 2004, tell us about it

 

It was the biggest blow for us when we heard the news; it was shocking; we lost a brother and it wasn’t an easy task going back to work and getting back into the studio. After a while we decided to go back and we were able to do so with the support of the record company and fans.

 

And you guys never thought of replacing him?

Never, we never thought of that.  We thought by not replacing him we were keeping his legacy alive. Tebogo Madingoane (the late member of the group) loved the group so much and we knew how he loved being part of the group. So replacing him never crossed our minds.

 

This year, you have been recognized by MTV and also been nominated for 2014 BET awards; how do you feel about it?

 

We feel very great that we are representing the African continent at the international level. This year has been good, getting our big break in Nigeria and also getting a BET nomination. We are happy to be part of the evolution going on in the African Music industry. We are definitely going places. African music is getting bigger by the day and we want international artiste like Jay Z coming to look for us for collaboration.

STEVE DEDE- ENTERTAINMENT EXPRESS