Mahotella Queens - 1 - LIVE at Afrikafestival Hertme 2006

Performance - 9 July 2006 Back in the summer of 1988, when the newly born world music beast started chomping through the undergrowth of the mainstream music industry, our nation’s arts centres caught their first glimpses of South Africa’s Mahotella Queens. Touring just as the thick fog of apartheid was clearing (and in the company of gravel-voiced ‘king of the groaners’ Mahlathini and the drum-tight Makgona Tsohle Band), the Queens introduced us to the potency of mbaqanga, the township jive so long denied us by cultural boycotts. Through their live shows, albums like Thokozile and Paris, Soweto, and even a collaboration with The Art Of Noise (remember them?), this Sowetan supergroup slayed us all, their songs of protest and resistance becoming the celebratory soundtrack of a new nation. A decade and a half on (and a good 40+ years from their embryonic days as a vocal trio), the Queens are still in joyous mood – the passion, power and velvet-smoothness of their three-part vocals failing to show even the slightest trace of wear or tear. When it comes to the indestructible beat of Soweto, these three wonderful women are among its true pioneers.In A Few Words… South African vocal diamonds

Added 30 Sept 2026