Who would’ve guessed that Mthatha would produce SA’s most gifted musical royalty, a young talented individual of such stature and magnitude? She is the new age Queen of African R&B, Soul and Afro-pop music and is
incredibly blessed with a voice many would kill to have. Her personality is as inviting as her musical skill and her smile is as genuine as it gets. This 24 year old self-taught guitarist whose diploma in music seems to be paying dividends is truly eccentric, confident in her own skin and fitting for the throne.
We invited this Ambitiouz “Amazulu” hit maker (whose video reached over 1 million views on YouTube) to come chill with us at the Kas’lam headquarters to talk about her journey.
Before all of this, there was Idols. Take us back through the whole experience and the journey. Well, it was an incredible experience man. I learnt a lot about what kind of artist I am, and what kind of artist that I want to be.
Social Media is a big part of Idols and I learnt more on how it works and the power it has, there was a lot I learnt on the show. It was an incredible experience man, I mean I’m on TV! Every Sunday! The kind of heavy side of it was the waiting and crossing fingers every week to find out if people voted for you. It’s exciting from the viewer’s side but we were always nervous and worried. Everybody enters a competition hoping they are going to win but even if you do not win, there’s always a positive perspective to look at and a way forward.
What were your first thoughts after the competition to push you forward? I had already entered Idols 2 times before the year I finished 7th place, but that time around I had finished studying music and I’ve always wanted a career in music. So when I didn’t win Idols I thought to myself “OK fine, that’s not how it’s supposed to go so I must find other avenues to fulfill my dream”. So basically Idols was a part of it but it wasn’t the end goal. I looked at it as a platform and so when I didn’t win it was “OUCH, cool which way to go now to get to where I want to be?”
As much as I was disappointed it was more motivating because I could now analyse and check a few things it helped me achieve, people now knew of a girl called Amanda who can sing… there was a way forward so it
was motivating.
Now from Idols to Ambitiouz, how did you link up with
Ambitiouz Entertainment? January 2016 is when I made the big move by moving from Eastern Cape to Johannesburg, you know that movie type of thing lol. I was pretty much pushing myself for 5 months trying to make my way up to the industry and learning the business side of being an artist. So around about May I was contacted by Ambitiouz and they were like “hey, we want to discuss what you’d like to do with your music”. 2 weeks later I got the contract and that was me joining Ambitiouz.
So they basically head hunted you? Well, I didn’t want to put it that way but they did lol. Initially I wasn’t the person that wanted to sign because back home you got people who had been to the city of Johannesburg telling
you that “don’t ever sign, you’ll get cheated and exploited”.
So as a young artist I was always afraid of signing,
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