Loliwe

When Zahara’s Loliwe came out in 2011, some South African critics hailed it as “revolutionary”, while also acknowledging that, musically, it didn’t exactly tread new ground. Others expressed disbelief that an acoustic pop record like this one could attain such enormous success at a time when kwaito and Afro-house ruled. Nevertheless, Loliwe quickly topped the charts and went on to become South Africa’s second fastest selling album (after Brenda Fassie’s Memeza). And that shouldn’t really come as a surprise, as Zahara’s debut is a brilliant pop record full of strong melodies, tender guitar playing, and emotion-filled vocals. Over 12 tracks, Zahara blends soul, jazz, gospel, and local South African folk styles like maskandi, creating powerful pop ballads like opening song “Destiny”, the maskandi tinged “Xa Bendingena Mama,” and the two soulful, folksy standouts “Loliwe” and “Lengoma” (check out this Afro-house version with DJ Sbu, which became a huge hit across Africa). Despite its simplicity, and most probably because of it, Loliwe established Zahara’s place in the annals of South African music history.