The award-winning afro-soul singer and songwriter released a short video recording an amapiano song inside her home studio. The lyrics of her music are, “Bathi sithi zekhethe, bathi sidunuse,” translated to ‘we were told to do the zekhethe dance move, we were told to bend over.’ The song is basically about having fun doing the Zeke the dance, created by Busta 929 and the late Mpura on their music Umsebenzi Wethu (Zekhethe).
Zahara singing amapiano – people’s reaction
People have mixed reactions to this video. Most made jokes about the song and the lyrics about bending over. Some fans came into Zahara’s defence, saying she should be allowed to pursue other genres of music and stated that a song in its early phases wouldn’t sound like a finished product. Others asked Zahara to stick to her genre, reminding her that she’s been singing afro-soul since 2011 and that all her albums Loliwe, Phendula, Country Girl, Mgidi and Nqaba yam all have a unique sound she’s perfected over the years.
Zahara’s response
When one fan suggested that Zahara should release the song, she humorously told him not to play games with her and later tweeted that she was joking; she wouldn’t release the amapiano song. Most of her followers were relieved at the tweet because they weren’t feeling the new music.
Possibility of Zahara releasing the song
Amapiano came into the South African music scene and took over. Most recently, Zakes Bantwini released a single titled Osama and music fans were sure the afro-tech sound would kill amapiano, but it wasn’t so; more amapiano songs were released. It’s not unusual for South African artists to move from their usual genres to dabble into amapiano. For example, Cassper Nyovest and Big Zulu are rappers, but they’ve released amapiano songs. Vusi Nova moved from Afro-soul to focus on making amapiano music. Zahara could decide to remove the music when it’s finished because a demographic of fans liked it. The singer also looked happy when she was recording the music; she wanted to try something different.