Artist Spotlight: Rebecca Malope
South Africa's Queen of Gospel....
After 30 years of an astoundingly erupting career, Rebecca Malope stakes her claim as one of the best to ever sing the Good Lord's praises and has the hard ware to prove it. Winning awards year after year she has sold over 10 million albums in South Africa alone which puts her on the list as a top star not only in her genre but across music as a whole. As an individual and collaborative artist she has released over 30 albums with most receiving gold o platinum status. She has appeared on TV and made appearences across the nation as one of the Queens of today.
Her fire for music began even as a kid, when she was 18 she hiked over 400 km with her sister from their home township of Kanyamazane to Johannesburg to fuel her passion. Her journey brought her from singing competitions to group collaborations and finally as a solo artist. She eventually won the Shell Road to Fame with an impactful performance of the song Shine On which is known to be deidcated to the politacal unrest during Apartheid in South Africa. Despite her winning she struggle to find a record label but finally was given a chance by MFM but was told to switch genres from gospel to disco to ensure record sales. So her debut album, titled "Rebecca", only included one gospel song which was well received and boosted her career.
Her first full gospel album "Rebecca Sings Gospel", was released in 1992 and exploded her notoriety to another level. She was finally the first gospel artist who could hear their music amongst the likes of other mainstream music. This set off an eruption of albums and in 1993 she released "Ngiyekeleni" followed by "Umoya Wam" in 1994 which contained her signature song Umoya Wam (listen below). In 1995 she let go of "Shwele Baba" breaking records at the time for the fastest selling album in South Africa!
In 2003 she won a KORA All African Music Award for Best Gospel Singer and in 2014 she released her final album titled AmaVIP! Take a listen below to her smash hit and let us know what you think of the Queen of Gospel!