We instantly fell in love with the sweet tone of South African songstress Simphiwe Dana. She is amazingly beautiful and has a geat sense of style! You can pick up her latest album here!

On many winter mornings, South Africa's newest lady of song, Simphiwe Dana, once told a journalist, sun rays glittered over the (picturesque) mountains of Lusikisiki village (Transkei, Eastern Cape), and that she, barefoot and with a bucket of water drawn from the nearest river on her head, would chant ceremonial circumcision and wedding songs. It is during one of those solitary, peaceful morning rituals that Dana made the bold decision that no matter what, music, and singing, in particular, were always going to be a part of her life if not her life entirely.

The South African cultural and music scene is all the more richer today because of that decision, taken all those years ago and the effect of which, Dana would only later begin to comprehend and appreciate. It may sound cliche, because it has been said of so many female vocalists that come on to the scene these days, that they sound so much like the young Miriam Makebas and Dorothy Masukus, but Dana's voice does transport you to that golden era in South Africas history. It is credit to her immense schooling in different musical forms, not to mention her latent talent, that Dana sings as if she has known a lot of pain and suffering in her life; because that is sometimes a necessary element in order that the kind of powerful songs she sings can be composed and sung the way she does. She was born in rural Gcuwa, Transkei (before the family moved to Lusikisiki) in 1980, where she and her three siblings and parents shared what she describes as a warm home. She matriculated in 1997 from Vela Private School in Umtata, Transkei. She has a diploma in graphic design from Port Elizabeth Technikon.

Dana's father was a preacher who also had a profound love for church choral music, which his eldest daughter also grew up singing. And as Dana says, religion and gospel music have played a pivotal role in both her spiritual life and the secular one. The only way to be closer to God is through music, she says. Outside music, Dana has interests in reading African history, Anthropology, graphic design and computer technology in general. Anything that advances life gives it deeper meaning, she says.

Source: simphiwe.co.za