Vulnerability is her biggest music strength
The ability to be vulnerable on stage to send a strong message is a rare skill which takes years to perfect, but for Richards Bay-born musician and composer Thabie Ngethe, it comes naturally.
The homegrown songbird used this skill when she recently launched her two new singles, Sekwanele and Umkhuleko, featuring Ruben Thomas.
The self-composed tracks respond to the extreme levels of femicide, domestic violence, ruthless killings, sicknesses and various social ills, while imploring for divine intervention.
In both songs, she used her vulnerability and fused it with her alluring deep but soothing voice and lyrics to send a strong message about the scourge of gender-based violence, condemning the plague.
‘Sekwanele means ‘enough’, and it’s about a married woman who is being abused. Umkhuleko is a prayer against all the pain, darkness and everything we are facing in the world,’ said
Thabie.
Born in Brackenham, Thabie was bitten by the music bug at a young age and began singing in school, church and at home events.
With her brother a known deejay, Thabie received first-hand experience of the industry and began taking her craft seriously.
‘I started singing along to songs on the radio before I was introduced to Afro and house music beats and started adding vocals on different genres.
‘Music boasted my confidence and creativity, but I never thought I would end up recording professionally and singing for audiences,’ she explained.
Thabie has the skill to tackle songs in many genres including gospel, Afro-soul, house classic and even RnB.
Her music is influenced by legendary musicians such as Busi Mhlongo, Letta Mbuli, Miriam Makeba and Yvonne Chaka Chaka.
In her thriving career,
Thabie has performed at many festivals in KZN, and hopes to spread her music across the globe, giving music lovers a taste of diverse African sounds.
Thabie’s music is available on all digital music stores.