Famous SA-Female-stars
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Adrienne 'Adie' Camp, née Liesching (born 12 July 1981 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa) is a singer and songwriter, who is known as the lead singer of the Christian pop-rock band The Benjamin Gate before the group disbanded in 2003. She briefly contributed to other artist's albums, namely her duet with rapper John Reuben featured on his album Professional Rapper and her background vocals on husband Jeremy Camp's albums Restored and Live Unplugged, after The Benjamin Gate disbanded. She now works under the name "Adie" and released her debut solo album Don't Wait on 26 September 2006. The album was co-produced by her husband Jeremy Camp. Her song "Your Way" climbed into the Top 15 on R&R Magazine's Christian chart in May 2007. Her sophomore release, titled "Just You and Me", was released in March 2010. |
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| Nádine Hoffeldt (born in Johannesburg, February 28th, 1982) is a South Afrikaans singer, best known for the hit song "Kaapse Draai".She has also recorded a number of songs in English. Beginning her career as a teenager in 1996, Nádine has released eight albums and one DVD, with two certified platinum and four more certified gold. In 1997 she toured South Africa with Dutch singer Jan Smit, when her then manager Ian Bossert brought him to the country. She also performed at the "Two Nations" concert in 1997, along with the Spice Girls and Billy Ocean, for an audience that included Nelson Mandela and Prince Charles. Nádine released her seventh solo album, Mense soos jy, in September 2005. Her Nádine 10 Years Live was nominated for Best DVD in the 2006 South African Music Awards (SAMA).To date, each of Nádine's albums has produced a successful song,[who?] with the latest being "Made Up My Mind". Nádine has now released her eighth album, As Jy Wonder, produced by international songwriter and producer Steve Taylor. She wrote lyrics for many of the album's songs herself. She commented:
Nádine has recorded a number of hit songs, including "Dankie liewe Ouma", "Hoor hoe klop my hart", "Kom dans met my", "Latina", "’n Meisiekind wil ek graag bly", "Die Hemel Brand", "Alweer Iemand Anders", "Afrika Spore" and "Vive la Vida". Her best-known song, the ballad "Kaapse Draai", was nominated as one of the top five songs in the 2003 Geraas Musiek Toekenning (GMT) awards, which recognise Afrikaans music. She maintains a busy performance schedule with up to 120 concerts a year. After more than ten years in the South African music industry, she numbers total sales of over 350,000 CDs.In 2008, she was again nominated for the SAMA awards for the album, As Jy Wonder. In 2010, she released her new album This Time I Know, containing the singles "This Time I Know It's For Real" and "Made Up My Mind", the latter being an English language cover of "Delete" by Younha. Her song "I Can Have You" was covered in Korean by f(x), who titled it "Mr Boogie". She has been promoting the new album within Europe over the past while, mainly in Belgium and Germany, in an attempt to expand her audience and become a more widely recognised singer. |
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| Deborah Fraser (born 1966) is a South African gospel artist with a solo career spanning close to decade and more than a million units sold, cementing her status as a singer of incomparable power in the tradition of richly melodious, faith-based pleasant music. Born in 1966 in KwaMashu in the KwaZulu Natal province, she started singing at school. Initially staying in Durban, she moved to Johannesburg, in Gauteng province, in 1985 to seek for greener pastures in the recording industry. She started out working with composer, singer and gospel producer Mthunzi Namba, who also hails from her province. She rose to prominence after announcing that she is the voice being used in many songs that were only credited to the late Brenda Fassie. Fraser later featured in the Maria Le Maria project alongside Fassie, Lundi Tyamara and Peter Mokoena in a Chicco Twala-produced album before launching her successful solo career. Deborah was a backing singer for musicians including Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Fassie, Lucky Dube and many others. Together with contemporaries such as Stella Khumalo, Mandisa Dlanga and Faith Kekana, they were the busiest session musicians. The quartet worked with every musician who needed to quality voices in their productions and ended up on almost every album produced in the country for the past seventeen years. In the early 1990s, Fraser toured around the world with former exiles Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya. She lost her son, Mbuso, after birth in 1996. Deborah Fraser’s widely publicised marriage to a Nigerian pastor, Sockey Okeke, hit turbulent waters hardly a year after the couple got married in a traditional wedding.When contacted by The Sowetan newspaper, Fraser said she was not prepared to discuss her private life in the newspapers. She is a winner of the first SABC Crown Gospel Music award in the Best Female Artist category, among other awards. Her albums include Thapelo |
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| Sonja Herholdt is an Afrikaner singer-songwriter and actress. Herholdt was born in the small Gauteng mining village of Nigel, Gauteng and at the age of three made her first singing performance at the local community recreation hall, singing the Afrikaans lullaby Slaap, my Kindjie. She attended the Afrikaans-medium Tienie Vorster Primary and John Vorster High School where she became Head Girl in both and followed her theatrical pursuits. She later obtained a diploma cum laude in Teaching after three years at the Johannesburg (Goudstad) College of Education. She gave up teaching to pursue music after meeting her future husband, FC Hamman. The couple married in 1976 and started a family, their youngest son later developed an extreme hearing impairment in 1993. Herholdt subsequently decided to start a school for hearing and linguistically impaired Afrikaans children, this was housed in the pre-primary section of Bryanston Primary School. This resulted in Herholdt returning to teach for a period of time. In 1996, Herholdt was involved in a serious car accident. She and her husband subsequently divorced after 21 years of marriage. In collaboration with Carel Cronjé, she released her autobiography in 2007 Sonja: Meisie van Nigel. Later that year she was injured in a robbery on the way home from Cronjé's Johannesburg home.Her breakthrough came when she did a spot on Gwynneth Ashley Robin's show and was soon asked to record Ek Verlang Na Jou.The single went gold in South Africa, selling over 25 000 copies. Her subsequent albums and singles earned her similar critical and commercial success. She went on to win a total of eight Sarie awards.In the 1970s and 1980s, she was frequently the best-selling female artist in South Africa. In 1979, she finally fulfilled her ambition to act by starring in Sing vir die Harlekyn, and winning a Rapport Oscar-Award as Best Female Newcomer. She later enjoyed music success in Europe, she holds the distinction of being the first ever South African singer to be invited to perform in the Netherlands on their local Television. She recorded her song Oberammergau in Dutch and it became a hit in the Dutch charts. (Dutch title and chart?) She also performed in Belgium, pushing Oberammergau into fifth place in the Belgian charts. In 1989, she performed at the Religious Broadcasting Corporation in Washington, coinciding with the release of her gospel album, The Warrior is a Child. In 1991, she received an award from the Afrikaans Chamber of Commerce for her services to Afrikaans music. In 1995, she signed an album contract with BMG Records, enjoying success with the title track of her new BMG compilation, Skipskop. Her 1998 album Ritsel in die Riebtos did not meet critical and commercial expectations. But she rebounded with the critically acclaimed 2000 album, Reconstructing Alice. In 2002 she developed her own record company, Son Music and released Sonjare, a nostalgic retrospective of her original hits. |
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| Sharon Tandy (born Sharon Finkelstein; 18 September 1943) is a South African singer who achieved some success in the United Kingdom in the 1960s as part of the blue-eyed soul and freakbeat movements. In 1966, she recorded some songs at Stax studios, a rarity for a white singer. She also had several chart hits in South Africa in the 1970s. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tandy appeared in South Africa's first beat film, Africa Shakes, and moved to England in 1964 at the suggestion of Frank Fenter, UK head of Atlantic Records, whom she later married. She released several singles between 1965 and 1969, and although none was a hit, she appeared on several contemporary television programmes, such as Beat Club. She has been described by Richie Unterberger as "blue-eyed soul singer rather in the mold of Dusty Springfield, both in terms of her voice and her versatility, blending various shades of soul, British pop, and even some tinges of mod-psychedelia. Her voice has also been compared to those of Julie Driscoll and Christine Perfect. In 1966 she recorded tracks at Stax Records' McLemore Avenue studios, backed by Booker T. & the M.G.'s and Isaac Hayes, and was an opening act on the 1967 Stax/Volt Tour of Europe. That year she also teamed up with another of Fenter's bands, Les Fleur de Lys and recorded several singles for the Atlantic label and a session for John Peel's "Top Gear". She recorded a single for Polydor in 1967 credited to "Debrah Aire" featuring more pop styled tracks, but this also flopped. However, the combination of lack of commercial success and the breakdown of her relationship with Fenter led to her return to South Africa in 1970. |
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| Sybil Jason, Sybil Jacobson, (23 November 1927 - 23 August 2011) was a motion-picture child actress who, in the late 1930s, was presented as a rival to Shirley Temple Born in Cape Town, South Africa, she began playing the piano at age two and, a year later, began making public appearances doing impersonations of Maurice Chevalier. She was introduced to the theatre-going public of London by way of her uncle, Harry Jacobson, a then-popular London orchestra leader and also pianist to Gracie Fields. The apex of her career came with a concert performance with Frances Day at London's Palace Theatre. Jason's theatre work led to appearances on radio and phonograph records, and a supporting role in the film Barnacle Bill (1935). Irving Asher, the head of Warner Bros.' London studio, saw Jason's performance in Barnacle Bill and subsequently arranged for her to make a screen test for the studio. The test was a success, resulting in Warner Bros. signing her to a contract. Her American film debut came as the lead in Little Big Shot (1935), directed by Michael Curtiz and co-starring Glenda Farrell, Robert Armstrong, and Edward Everett Horton. Jason followed this with supporting roles opposite some of Warner Bros. most popular stars, including Kay Francis in I Found Stella Parish (1935), Al Jolson in The Singing Kid (1936), Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart in The Great O'Malley (1937), and again with Kay Francis in Comet Over Broadway (1938). Warners also starred her in The Captain's Kid (1937), and four Vitaphone two-reelers filmed in Technicolor: Changing of the Guard, A Day at Santa Anita, Little Pioneer, and The Littlest Diplomat. Jason, however, never became the major rival to Shirley Temple that Warner Bros. had hoped for and, her film career ended after playing two supporting roles at 20th-Century Fox. These films — The Little Princess (1939) and The Blue Bird (1940) — were in support of Temple, who became her lifelong friend |
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| Dana Valery Catalano (born Fausta Dana Galli in Codogno, Italy) is a singer, actress, and television performer who started her career in the entertainment industry at the age of 16 in Johannesburg, South Africa where her family emigrated from Italy in 1947. She has performed on television, radio, Broadway and in live concert performances worldwide, including major cities such as New York, London, Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Johannesburg. She is the sister of the late singer and actor Sergio Franchi. Dana Valery starred in three productions of the South African musical revue Wait A Minim!: The Original 1962 South African production; The 1964 London production; and the Broadway production which ran for 456 performances at the John Golden Theatre from March 7, 1966 - April 15, 1967. Miss Valery recorded Original Cast Albums of all three productions.Dana Vallery's first USA album was an RCA collaboration album with Al Hirt and Boots Randolph. Her solo debut album in the United States was called Dana Valery. The cover artwork shows her wearing black against a black background, resulting in a cameo-like effect. This album can still be found on Internet record stores and auction sites. This album was issued on RCA's custom label - Phantom. She recorded ten LP albums, two EPs, and a number of singles in South Africa prior to going abroad. In Johannesburg, Dana won two SARIE awards in (1964 and 1965) for Best Female Vocalist. |
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| Kristin McClement is a South-African born guitarist and songwriter now based in Brighton, England. Having moved to Brighton initially to study Fine Art, she became a feature of the local folk scene, and in particular the Willkommen Collective (Sons of Noel and Adrian, Woodpecker Wooliams, Birdengine, Peggy Sue, Laura Marling, Mumford and Sons, Rozi Plain, Rachel Dadd) In 2013 Kristin released her 2nd EP, Pursue The Blues. This was recorded and produced by David Ringland using entirely analog equipment. The follow up for this release is due in 2014, entitled 'The Wild Grips', and has been produced by Christian Hardy of The Leisure Society featuring Becca Mears (Peggy Sue, Eyes and No Eyes) on Cello, Tom Heather (Eyes and No Eyes) on Drums and Percussion and Christopher Cundy (Guillemots) on Bass Clarinet. In early 2014 the first track from this album, 'Blackfin Gulls', was selected by BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Tom Robinson for the BBC Introducing Mixtape |
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Perla Siedle Gibson was a South African soprano and artist who became internationally celebrated during the Second World War as the Lady in White, when she sang troopships in and out of Durban harbour. Gibson was born in Durban in 1888, the daughter of Otto Siedle, a prominent local shipping agent, businessman and musician of German extraction. In the early twentieth century she studied music and art in Europe and the US, and gave recitals in London and New York. Her youngest brother was Jack Siedle, the South African Test cricketer.During World War 2 Durban was an extremely busy waystation for convoys of ships en route to the fronts in North Africa and the Far East. Gibson became famous among thousands of Allied troops when she serenaded them as their ships passed in and out. One account of the origin for Gibson's custom was that it arose when she was seeing off a young Irish seaman her family had entertained the day before. As his ship was departing he was said to have called across the water asking her to sing something Irish, and Gibson responded with a rendition of "When Irish Eyes are Smiling". She decided to sing to every ship connected with the war which entered or left the harbour. Over the following years she went on to sing to more than 5,000 ships and a total of about a quarter of a million Allied servicemen. Clad in white with a red hat, she would stand at a spot at the mouth of Durban Bay where ships entering and leaving the harbour pass quite close, and sing patriotic and sentimental songs through a megaphone from a torpedoed ship, which grateful British soldiers had given her. Soldiers' talk led to the fame of the Lady in White spreading around the world. A British army newspaper called Parade, dated 3 March 1945, described Gibson as a highlight of troops' visits to Durban:As the crowded ships passed into the harbour, men lining the landward rails saw a woman, dressed in white, singing powerfully through a megaphone such songs as "There'll Always be an England!" and "Land of Hope and Glory." A well-known local figure, she would drive down from her home on the Berea as soon as she could see that the ships were moving in. Gibson was married to Air Sergeant Jack Gibson, who served in Italy, and had two sons and a daughter in the military. She had sung all their ships goodbye as they left for the war. She even sang on the day she received news that her son Roy had been killed in the fighting in Italy. She died in 1971, shortly before her 83rd birthday. The year later a bronze plaque donated by men of the Royal Navy was erected to her memory on Durban's North Pier on the spot where she used to sing. In 1995 Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a statue of Gibson near the Ocean Terminal in Durban harbour
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Kyla-Rose Smith (born 10 September 1982) is a South African violinist, singer, and dancer.At present, she performs with the Afro pop musical ensemble Freshlyground, and with Kolo Novo Movie Band, a large ensemble that performs fusion music based on the music of Southeastern Europe. She is a former member of the hip hop music group Tumi and the Volume, and of the dance troupe Vuyani Dance Theatre. |
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Juanita du Plessis (née Naude) is a famous South African singer, born on 26 April 1972 in Windhoek, Namibia. She became known for her big hit “Ska-Rumba”.
Several albums are in Afrikaans and the names of these are kept in the original language. |
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Wendy Oldfield (born 24 February 1964, Cape Town, South Africa) is a South African singer. At the age of nineteen, she formed the rock group The Sweatband, and from 1999 to 2001, she was involved with the band Mondetta. She is the winner of several music awards, and currently lives in Wilderness, Western Cape, South Africa.
In 1983, Oldfield was involved in the forming of Sweatband, a South African music group. She was the lead vocalist of the band, and released two albums. The group's biggest hit was "This Boy" which reached number 15 on the official South African top 20 in September 1986. "Shape of Her Body" was also a hit on South African radio.In 1988, five years after the formation of the band, she left the group and started her own solo career in the music industry. Oldfield first rose to fame with the release of her debut album, Beautiful World. This album won her the 1992 Oktave award for Best Female Vocalist. Her song "Miracle" was nominated for Song of the Year.Her song "Acid Rain" charted twice on South African radio, first in the original studio version and then in an "acid remix". |
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Antoinette Pienaar (born 1961) is a South African actress, singer, and author.
One of five sisters, Antoinette Pienaar was born in Beaufort West, grew up in Carnavon and studied drama at the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town. She started her acting career in Shakespearean productions and later turned to singing, writing and storytelling, performing her gentle satires at the National Arts Festivals of Grahamstown, Oudshoorn and other Southern African theaters. As storyteller she is best known for her stories of historical African heroines such as Krotoa of the Cape.Since 2001 she has been apprentice to Oom Johannes Willemse (a Griqua Shaman) in the deep recesses of the Karoo.She is also featured in "Van Nature", a regular insert on the Afrikaans breakfast show Dagbreek Translated from the Afrikaans: "Herbs rule." The phrase plays on the old Afrikaans saying that herbs are natures cure for every and any ailment. Since 2003, Pienaar and Oom (uncle) Johannes Willemse (a Griqua Shaman) in his late 90's are regulars on Amore Bekkers' afternoon drive show (Tjailatyd) on the National Afrikaans Radio Station (Radio Sonder Grense, (RSG)) and answers listeners questions on a weekly basis from location in the heart of the Great Karoo of South Africa.Pienaar received great acclaim in the Afrikaans community thanks to the efforts of Amore Bekker and RSG with this program. Pienaars book: "Kruidjie roer my" / "The Griqua's Apprentice" on folk remedies from the Griqua and Afrikaner (Boer) communities was published with the help of RSG. In her own words, the publication of The Griqua's Apprentice is "the first step in preserving the Karoo herb heritage for South Africa and the world"
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Lesley Rae Dowling is a South African singer-songwriter.
Lesley Rae Dowling was discovered in Stellenbosch in 1980 by artist manager Paddy Lee Thorpe. She released her first single (The Spaniard / Grips of Emotion) and album (Lesley Rae Dowling) in 1981. Many of her albums have been produced and co-written (and accompanied) by Tully McCully. Her music has won many South African music awards, including various Sarie (South African Recording Industry) awards, several SAMA awards, 3M Scotty awards, and an FNB SAMA award. She declined the opportunity in the early 1980s to go international, as the cultural boycott of South Africa during the late apartheid era meant she would need to live in Ireland for six months a year, something she was not prepared to do. She has a well-known love/hate relationship with the music industry, and has never been comfortable with public performances. She lives on her farm, "De Groote Zalze" near Stellenbosch. Albums
Singles
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Sasha-Lee Davids born in Atlantis, Western Cape, South Africa is a singer and the 2009 co-winner of season 5 of the Idols (South Africa) alongside Jason Hartman. Originally Davids was declared the winner. However, after it was revealed that a malfunction had occurred with the text lines in the finals, it was decided that even though Jason was the official winner of Idols, the title would be shared between him and the "runner up according to public votes" Sasha-Lee Davids.
Sasha-Lee Davids was originally declared the sole winner after singing the winner's song "True Believer". But apparently there had been a mix-up with late votes arriving after the cutoff time on the night of the finale. The SMS messages had been sent before the cutoff time but were only received after the deadline. M-Net made the public aware of the matter within a day and assured everyone that a recount of the votes would be done as soon as possible. The re-count showed that Jason Hartman, the then runner-up was actually the winner, with 1.3 million votes, or 54% of the total. Sasha-Lee had come second, with 1.1 million votes, or 46% only. M-Net decided however that "200,000 votes are not significant enough, and the results so close, the only fair thing to do under the circumstances is to declare a tie".Thus giving Jason and Sasha-Lee Davids the same prizes. This was a first, world-wide, in the Idols competition and created extensive media coverage at the time. |
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Louise Carver (born 10 January 1979) is a South African folk rock singer-songwriter and pianist. Carver was born in Cape Town, and holds dual citizenship in South Africa and the United Kingdom. She began playing piano at the age of 11, and received her first recording contract at the age of 15. She matriculated at the Rustenburg School for Girls, matriculating in 1996. She earned an honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Cape Town in 2002.
Carver released her first single, It Don’t Matter (1996)when she was 17. The single topped the South African National Campus Charts. It spent 11 weeks on the South African National Top 40 Charts, where it peaked at the number three positio At age 18 she followed the single with her debut album, Mirrors and Windows (1998). First for Women, a South African insurance company, sponsored Carver's 2008 Home Tour |
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Mimi Coertse (born 12 June 1932) is a South African soprano.Coertse, born in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, matriculated at the Helpmekaar Girls High School in Johannesburg. She began vocal studies in South Africa in 1949. In July 1953 she married the broadcaster and composer Dawid Engela. She left South Africa in September 1953 for London, and then went via The Hague to Vienna. In January 1954 she started training with Maria Hittorff and Josef Witt.
Coertse made her debut in January 1955 as the First Flower girl in Wagner's Parsifal at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Karl Böhm conducting. She also sang in Basle at the Teatro San Carlo. On 17 March 1956 she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte by Mozart and remained with the Vienna State Opera until 1978. Her Covent Garden debut was in 1956, in the same role. Coertse sang the soprano part in Bach's Matthäus-Passion at Fritz Wunderlich's first appearance in Vienna in 1958, when he performed the tenor arias with Julius Patzak singing the Evangelist. In 1958, Coertse and Fritz Wunderlich again worked together at the Aix-en-Provence festival in Die Zauberflöte. In 1965, she sang Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Vienna State Opera which also featured Fritz Wunderlich as Belmonte.
Coertse has sung in theatres at Aix-en-Provence, Athens, Barcelona, Brussels, Covent Garden, Düsseldorf, Glyndebourne, Graz, Hamburg, Linz, London, Melk, Naples, Palermo, Salzburg, Stuttgart, The Hague, Turin and Wiesbaden and with conductors like Karl Böhm, Vittorio Gui, Alberto Erede, Heinrich Hollreiser, Herbert von Karajan, Joseph Keilberth, Jascha Horenstein, Rudolf Kempe, Josef Krips, Rafael Kubelík, Erich Leinsdorf, Wilhelm Loibner, Lorin Maazel, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Edouard van Remoortel, Rudolf Moralt, Heinz Wallberg, Nello Santi, Giuseppe Patane, John Pritchard, Argeo Quadri, Mario Rossi, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Hermann Scherchen, Georg Solti, Hans Swarowsky, Horst Stein, George Szell, Silvio Varviso, Anton Hartman, Antonino Votto and Berislav Klobučar. Among the famous singers who have partnered her were Eberhard Wächter, Jean Madeira, Giuseppe di Stefano, Alfredo Kraus, George London, Walter Berry, Rudolf Christ, Renate Holm, Boris Christoff, Anton Dermota, Otto Edelmann, Cesare Siepi, Giuseppe Taddei, Ettore Bastianini, Luciano Pavarotti, Aldo Protti, Simon Estes, Hilde Gueden, Johannes Heesters, Sena Jurinac, Waldemar Kmentt, Peter Schreier, Gottlob Frick, Paul Schöffler, Erich Kunz, Christa Ludwig, Julius Patzak, Murray Dickie, Luigi Alva, Helge Rosvaenge, Rudolf Schock, Birgit Nilsson, Teresa Stich-Randall, Gwyneth Jones, Otto Wiener, Heinz Holecek and Giuseppe Zampieri. She is also well known in South Africa for Afrikaans art songs. Since returning to South Africa in 1973 she has been a regular guest on South African stages and also a frequent broadcaster on radio and television. In recent years she has devoted her time to exposing young South African singers to the neglected art of Lieder singing which can be artistically even more demanding than opera singing. Her support for her fellow South African musicians has been outstanding - as may be witnessed in her Debut with Mimi and through the Mimi Coertse Bursary. In 1998 Mimi Coertse and Neels Hansen founded The Black Tie Ensemble, a development project which enables young, classically trained singers to bridge the gap between training and professional performance. This project has developed into the most exciting classical singing ensemble in South Africa, and is now on the brink of becoming a vibrant, new, young opera company. A project for future stars of Africa! The Ensemble, sponsored by Sappi, performs operas at the State Theatre (Pretoria), Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens (Johannesburg) and the Civic Theatre (Johannesburg). Honours and awards
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Elizabeth Connell (22 October 1946 – 18 February 2012) was a South African-born operatic soprano (formerly mezzo-soprano) whose career was conducted mainly in the United Kingdom and Australia. She was acclaimed for her performances of the great Strauss, Verdi and Wagner heroines.
Elizabeth Connell was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1946. Following her debut at Wexford Festival Opera in 1972, she sang at the opening of the Sydney Opera House in Prokofiev's War and Peace in 1973, and continued to have a special relationship with Opera Australia for the rest of her career. Following a five-year association with English National Opera, she was a freelance artist with the major opera houses. She appeared at the opera houses of London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, New York (Metropolitan Opera), San Francisco, Milan (La Scala), Naples and Geneva in a wide repertoire and at the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Orange, Verona and Glyndebourne Festivals. Connell had a successful collaboration with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Carlo Maria Giulini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Edward Downes, Sir Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Seiji Ozawa and Sir Mark Elder. In concert, Connell's performances included Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis and Mahler's Eighth Symphony with conductors such as Abbado, Giulini, Maazel, Sinopoli and Pierre Boulez. In recital, she appeared with Geoffrey Parsons, Graham Johnson, Eugene Asti and Lamar Crowson in Milan, Geneva, Sydney, Johannesburg and at the Wigmore Hall. Engagements included Kostelnička in Janáček's Jenůfa, Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin, Bellini's Norma, Abigaille in Verdi's Nabucco and Ariadne in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos for Opera Australia; Ortrud, Beethoven's Fidelio and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Berlin State Opera, Isolde in Hamburg, Senta in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in Hamburg and Berlin and Strauss's Elektra in Berlin, Madrid, Bordeaux and Montreal as well as the Färberin in a new production of Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten in Frankfurt and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She sang Elektra in Las Palmas, Gertrude (Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel) for the Royal Opera (with worldwide Telecast and DVD release) and concerts of Jenůfa with the London Symphony and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras under Daniel Harding as well as Fidelio with London Lyric Opera with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In December 2008, Elizabeth Connell had a triumphant success at the opening night of Puccini's Turandot at the Royal Opera HouseCovent Garden, which she also sang in Hamburg and for Opera Australia. In May and June 2010, she sang in a new production of Tristan und Isolde at the Prague State Opera, conducted by Jan Latham-König. Her 2010 performances also included Elektra in Auckland as well as a solo recital in London St John's, Smith Square.In February 2011, she returned to Prague for Turandot. In April 2011 she was due to sing Lady Macbeth in a new production of Macbeth for Opera Australia, but she had to cancel at short notice because of a medical emergency. In October 2011, Connell took part in an opera gala at the Bad Urach Festival, where she sang arias and scenes from Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Verdi's Otello and Macbeth.In 2012, she was due to make her debut with the Toulon Opera as Ortrud in a new production of Lohengrin, and to return to Melbourne as Turandot, but her illness prevented her doing so. Her final performance was a recital on 27 November 2011 in Hastings. Elizabeth Connell died in London on 18 February 2012, aged 65, from cancerRecordingsHer many recordings include Rossini's William Tell (Decca, Riccardo Chailly), Mahler's Eighth Symphony (EMI, Klaus Tennstedt), Mendelssohn's Second Symphony (DG, Abbado), Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten (Decca, Lothar Zagrosek), Donizetti's Poliuto, Verdi's I due Foscari (Philips, Lamberto Gardelli), Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder (Denon, Eliahu Inbal), Wagner's Lohengrin (Philips/Friedrich) and Schubert Lieder with Graham Johnson, as part of Hyperion Records Complete Schubert Edition. In 2008, two important CD releases were added to her discography: Her first operatic recital, singing great scenes by Wagner and Strauss for ABC Classics, conducted by Muhai Tang, and Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave, conducted by Richard Hickox. Elizabeth Connell also recorded portions of Sir Granville Bantock's "The Song of Songs" under the baton of Vernon Handley, for Hyperion. |
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Karen Zoid (born Karen Louise Greeff) is a female South African rock singer and guitarist. She also writes her own songs, some of which have been included in Afrikaans poetry courses at the University of Pretoria.
On 3 May 2008 she won the South African Music Awards SAMA for Best Female Solo Artist of 2008, one of the 5 most prestigious music awards in South Africa. Born on 10 August 1978 in Brussels, Belgium, to a South African diplomat, Karen Zoid grew up in Belgium and then Johannesburg, where she was a street artist in the streets of the northern suburb of Melville. She attended the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg, and then studied drama at AFDA, a film school in Johannesburg. In 2001 she dropped out of university to focus on her music. In 2004, Karen married band member Don Reineke, and on 29 January 2007 the couple had a son, Ben Francis Reinecke. Zoid and Reinecke divorced in 2010. Her first album, "Poles Apart", released by EMI in June 2001, was an instant success, especially amongst the youth of South Africa. The press started referring to the "Zoid Generation", and her icon status was highlighted in 2004 by both Time Magazine and U.S. News & World Report. EMI released her second album, "Chasing the Sun", in June 2003, and her third, "Media" In July 2005. In 2007 she left EMI and signed with Just Music. On 2 August 2007 her fourth album, "Postmodern World", was released. In particular her songs "Aeroplane Jane" and "Postmodern World" topped the charts at the end of 2007 in South Africa. In 2009, Zoid released "Ultimate Zoid", a two disk album combining hits from her previous albums with three new tracks, and a live recording. In 2010 a new album, "Terms and Conditions", was released by EMI. "Zoid Afrika" was released in 2012. She has consistently had major radio play. Music from her albums has been included on the audio entertainment of international flights to and from South Africa. She has also written music for television, with two of her songs featuring in the 2006 movie "Number 10". Karen Zoid performed at the inaugurations of State Presidents Thabo Mbeki in 2004 and Jacob Zuma in 2009. She and her band also performed at the Nelson Mandela 46664 HIV/AIDS benefit concert in 2005. She and her band have had several concerts in London, mainly to South African audiences. In 2006 they performed in London, Canada and Dubai (at the Dubai Desert Rhythm Festival). In 2010, Karen Zoid starred in a Franz Marx film, Susanna van Biljon. She recorded the theme song for the sound track, and a simpler version that foregrounds her voice, and replaces the orchestral backing with a simpler piano accompaniment on her "Terms and Conditions" album. Karin Zoid became famous for a song called "Afrikaners is Plesierig" (released 2001) which is based on a fragment of an Afrikaans folksong, originally published by the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereninge in its Sangbundel. |
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Laurika Rauch (born 1 November 1950 in Cape Town) is a South African singer who sings in the Afrikaans as well as English language. She had a hit single in 1979 with Kinders van die Wind (Children of the Wind), written by Koos du Plessis. The song featured prominently in the Afrikaans television series "Phoenix & Kie" in the late seventies. Contents
Early lifeLaurika Rauch was born on 1 November 1950 in Cape Town, as the youngest child of Fritz and Rina Rauch. She has a sister, Ingrid, and a brother, Johan. Her father was public relations manager of Old Mutual and her mother a trained social worker who later became editor of Die Huisvrou, a women’s journal. Rauch took piano lessons from the age of five and sang in a children’s choir, called ‘Oom Hannes Uys se Kindersangkring’, for ten years. She also practised acting / speech, mimicry and elocution. She matriculated from Jan van Riebeeck High School in Cape Town. Other well known figures in the music industry who were also alumni of this school are Randall Wicomb and Johan Stemmet. After school she studied drama at the University of Stellenbosch. Early career and ‘Kinders van die wind’After obtaining her drama degree in 1972, she lectured Afrikaans at the Roggebaai Training College. At the end of 1974 she traded the Cape for Gauteng (the then Transvaal) and from 1975 to 1976 worked as an actress with ‘Pact Playwork’ under Robin Malan. It was part of the curriculum of that time that prescribed work for school children be performed and two teams of actors travelled from school to school to act out the prescribed works. At the end of her two year contract, she took up part-time teaching by day and waitressing by night. It was during one of these evenings that she served Katinka Heyns and Chris Barnard at the restaurant at which she worked. At the time Heyns was working as the director of a TV series ‘Phoenix & Kie’ (with Barnard as script writer). Jana Cilliers played the role of a cabaret singer in this series. At a stage, Cilliers suggested that Heyns hire Rauch to sing for her and Rauch became Cilliers' "ghost" singing voice. The songs of the songwriter Koos du Plessis were used in the soundtrack of the series and her version of the song - ‘Kinders van die wind’ - was recorded in a single take. Johnny Boshoff was the musical arranger and director. After the release of the first episode of the 1979 series - which ran for 13 weeks - the song became an immediate hit. Rauch received offers from seven record companies. In the ‘Beeld / Burger’ of 5 January 2011 Mariana Malan describes how it affected her when she heard Rauch singing ‘Kinders van die Wind’ for the first time. It was on the Springbok Radio and Radio 5 (now 5fm) hit parades where it remained number one for several weeks. This was a unique experience for an Afrikaans song. Around this time Rauch received an offer for a permanent teaching post at a school, but because of the success of ‘Kinders van die Wind’, she was instead able to pursue a career in music. ‘Encore! Brel’ and ‘Met permissie gesê’After the success of ‘Kinders van die wind’ and her ‘Debuut’-album, the singer and songwriter Anton Goosen asked her in October 1979 to accompany him on a tour. At that time Goosen was also establishing a name for himself with his original Afrikaans music and his hit ‘Kruidjie-Roer-my-nie’. Before him it was often the case that German and other songs of foreign origin were translated and released in South Africa. Original local songwriters were few and far between. The tours did much to further establish Rauch’s name. Around this time the ‘grand dame’ of theatre, Taubie Kushlick, heard of Rauch. In 1980 she asked her for an audition as she was looking for somebody to interpret the music of the Flemish song writer Jacques Brel in a new production with Ann Hamblin and Ferdie Uphof. Kushlick quickly decided that this "boeremeisie" (Afrikaner girl)– as she called Rauch – was the appropriate choice for her new production, ‘Encore! Brel’. It was a great success and played for six months in the Chelsea Theatre in Hillbrow. An ensuing production, ‘The Best of Brel’, followed in 1983. In 1981 she was also in the cast of ‘Met permissie gesê’, written by Hennie Aucamp. " The show was the first Afrikaans cabaret." With Janice Honeyman as director and people such as Amanda Strydom, Rina Nienaber, Gerben Kamper and Bill Curry in the cast, it was a form of "civilised protest" against the government of the day. Christopher Torr develops as a songwriterIn 1984, English-speaking husband, Christopher Torr, wrote a song in English about the bank robber André Stander, who had obtained almost legendary notoriety in South Africa. The song was never recorded or performed. When somebody gave Rauch a cassette recording of the music of the German Udo Jürgens, she didn’t listen to it at first, choosing to focus on original Afrikaans material, rather than translating foreign songs. Torr began listening to the German songs, and without knowing what the German meant, wrote Afrikaans words for one of the songs which was eventually recorded and released as one of Rauch's greatest hits –‘Op Blouberg se strand’. Torr still provides much of Rauch's most successful material. Laurika Rauch as a songwriterRauch has put quite a few poems to music and recorded them, such as ‘Nalekokers’ and ‘Niks hang so rooi soos wingerdblaar by Hexrivier’ by Boerneef, ‘Ballade vir ‘n koningsdogter’ by ID du Plessis and ‘Windliedjie’ and ‘Toemaar die donker man’ by Ingrid Jonker. Career highlights and awardsRauch received a ‘Sarie’ award in 1980 as most promising singer. She was the first recipient of a medal of honour awarded by the ‘South African Academy for Arts and Science’ for her contribution to light Afrikaans music in 1997. In 2006 ‘Huisgenoot Skouspel’ crowned her with an award for her lifelong achievement. ‘Van Berlyn tot Bapsfontein’, together with Jannie du Toit in 1988, was another highlight for her. Stephan Bouwer was the director of this singular production. She took part in Huisgenoot Skouspel in 2000 for the first time, with further performances in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008 en 2009. She was also involved in the ‘Huisgenoot’s Kaapse Jol’ in 2007, and ‘Skouspel Plus' in 2009 and 2010. There were various overseas performances, amongst them a concert tour to Belgium in 1985 (a documentary for television was also made during this tour), performances in the Netherlands in 1993 and 1994, three performances in London (2002 - 2004) at the Ukkasie festival, two performances in Prague (1997 and 1998) and a performance in Antwerp in 2006. ‘Samekoms/Kopano’ with Vusi Mahlasela in 1998/99 is another high point of her career. Rauch was producer and singer, and Deon Opperman the director. In 2011 her husband, Christopher Torr, completed the musical theatre piece, ‘Stuur groete aan Mannetjies Roux’, and sold-out runs at the ‘Atterbury Theatre’ in Pretoria, the ‘Artscape’ in the Cape, ‘Emperor’s Palace’ in Johannesburg and the ‘Sand du Plessis’ theatre in Bloemfontein, were completed at the end of July. Her most popular songs were used in the production, and Rauch also sang and acted in the show. The musical, with a cast of 12 actor/singers, surpassed all expectations – artistically and at the box office. Discography‘Debuut’ (1979), ‘ ’n Jaar in my lewe’ (1980), ‘Vir Jou’ (1981), ‘Jy is te dierbaar’ (1983) ‘Laurika op versoek’ (1985) and ‘Encore! Laurika’ (1988): These vinyl albums provided some of Rauch’s greatest hits. Anton Goosen still provided many of the compositions on ‘Debuut’, with songs such as ‘Neanderdalman’ and ‘Vergeet om my te vergeet/onthou om te onthou’. Kupido, who would later achieve fame as a country singer, provided ‘Jy is te dierbaar’ and ‘Lied van die natuur’ on the 1983 album ‘Jy is te dierbaar’. With ‘Encore!Laurika’ Chris Torr emerged on the scene as a songwriter with tracks such as ‘Miekie’ and ‘Die ballade van Jakob F de Beer’. It was actually ‘Op Blouberg se strand’ – his translation of the Udo Jürgens song – that was particularly popular with the public. 'Stuur groete aan Mannetjies Roux’ (1990), ‘Die gang’ (1992) and afterwards: 'Stuur groete aan Mannetjies Roux’ was her first Afrikaans album to reach platinum status, and it was the first Afrikaans album ever to appear in South Africa as a CD. Chris Torr provided the title track about the legendary rugby player Mannetjies Roux. ‘Die gang’ was the first album that Rauch released in the name of her own record company, ‘Laurika Rauch Productions’. The gripping title track of the ‘Hot Gates’ album of 1995 was also one of Torr’s compositions. It remains one of Rauch’s greatest hits. Rauch received a SAMA for this album. With ‘The Brel Album’ (1997) she returned to her roots as a great interpreter of the music of Jacques Brel. Although there have been other successful greatest hits compilations, her ‘19 Treffers van 21 jaar’ (1999) was a collection spanning more than 20 years of her career. This compilation has obtained double platinum status with sales of more than 120 000 and remains a good seller. Gian Groen provided the title track of ‘Vier Seisoene Kind’ (2002) and it remains one of her most popular songs. ‘My ou tante Koba’ (2004) was nominated for a SAMA. On her album ‘Tweeduisend-en-tien!’ (2010), she performs a duet with Kurt Darren (‘Slang in die gras’) and the Robbie Wessels song ‘Skouspel 2010’, about a baboon that creates chaos in a hotel room, provides comic relief with the aid of baboon sounds provided by the musician Leon Ecroignard. Her first and only full-length DVD of a performance, with Deon de Bruyn as director and Louis Brittz as musical director, appeared in 2006. The title is ‘LAURIKA RAUCH: Grootste treffers LIVE’. Including compilations of her greatest hits, Rauch has released 22 albums.
Personal lifeShe married Christopher Torr in 1984. At the time he was a lecturer in economics (later to become a professor). They have two children, Simon and Nina. See alsoExternal links |
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http://samusicawards.co.za/ |
