SOUTH AFRICA: From Zulu royalty to pop music prodigy - Toya Delazy is winning awards and fans.

Record ID: 459161

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: From Zulu royalty to pop music prodigy - Toya Delazy is winning awards and fans.
  • Date: 17th May 2013
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (RECENT) (REUTERS) (16:9) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MUSICIAN, TOYA DELAZY, SAYING: "Somehow I have been surrounded by very strong women in my life, my grandmother, my great grandmother, my mother and I guess the music comes from them, comes from being part of the Zulu nation and if you know the Zulu we sing a lot. We sing when we are sad, we sing when we are happy, there is a song for every occasion... we show... when you are teasing some else there is a song."
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Reuters ID: LVA2Z1SXML6A4ZR0O94DLTVCR3HF
  • Story Text: Twenty two-year old Latoya Buthelezi, better known to her fans as Toya DeLazy is a newcomer in the music industry. She recently received six nominations for her album "Due Drop Deluxe" at the prestigious South Africa Music Awards. She is the great-granddaughter of the legendary musical royal, Princess Magogo - a Zulu music composer and political activist, from whom she borrows deep musical roots that has attracted fans across Africa and beyond.


    South African musician Toya DeLazy's popularity has risen fast. The newcomer's first album "Due Drop Deluxe" received six nominations in this year's South African Music Awards (SAMAs) winning three including Newcomer of the Year and Best Pop Album.
    DeLazy started her affair with music at the age of 9, when she had her first piano lesson and went on as she studied jazz piano at Howard College in Durban.
    DeLazy says the nominations were a pat on the back for the hard work her team put into the album, which features her very own unique sound of music, "JEHP" - a term she coined that stands for jazz electro-hop pop.
    "It feels like we pushed very hard, and I worked very hard, I brought something new to the industry, and to a whole culture in a way. I feel like I have something to share," she said in an interview with Reuters.
    Before the release of her first single "Pump it On", the 22-year old had already started making waves with the video for the song getting more than 175,000 views on YouTube.
    All the success seems to come as a surprise to this urban songbird who has shared the stage with several new and veteran artists.
    "The highlight of my career has been releasing the album I guess, having something to show that I am a musician and you can listen to my stuff and wow. There have just been highlights across the whole time, like opening for Adam Lambert, to doing Joburg Day. I am not from the city,Johannesburg is where I'm at right now because I'm working and to have 25,000 people jamming there to my sounds from wherever I am at that was insane, and it just kept on going. Now it feels like the school of life and that's kind of life changing," said DeLazy.
    DeLazy, who hails from Kwa Zulu Natal is the great-granddaughter of the legendary musical royal, Princess Magogo - a Zulu classical music composer, singer and political activist.
    Princess Magogo has inspired many - from the producers of this 2002 opera musical based on her life, to her descendant DeLazy who comes from a line of Zulu royalty.
    Real name, Latoya Buthelezi she says her heritage inspired her greatly.
    "Somehow I have been surrounded by very strong women in my life, my grandmother, my great grandmother, my mother and I guess the music comes from them, comes from being part of the Zulu nation and if you know the Zulu we sing a lot. We sing when we are sad, we sing when we are happy, there is a song for every occasion... we show... when you are teasing some else there is a song," DeLazy said.
    DeLazy says she takes after her mother, who passed away in 2008 when the teenager was in her final year of highschool.
    On her chart topping debut single "Pump it On", which starts off with the lyrics, "ten toes walked me through some heavy blows", DeLazy says she wanted to encourage people to follow their dreams, no matter their background or circumstances.
    "The whole concept of pump it on and the message coming out... why I wanted to exist is, in a way like I feel like everything has moved on from the way it used to be, people can live from arts now, people can live from all of those things I was portraying in the video, plus even in our own society, even your little girl, or your little boy can be like a pro-skateboarder, or can be a singer and no matter what the colour of your skin is we all one," said DeLazy.
    When asked how she describes herself, DeLazy, who loves to skateboard says she is "young, free spirited and musical."
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