Yvonne Chaka Chaka
-
Singer and Musician - Johannesburg
Yvonne Chaka Chaka (born Yvonne Machaka in 1965) is
a South African singer.
Dubbed the "Princess of Africa", Chaka Chaka has
been at the forefront of South African popular music
for 20 years. Songs like "I'm Burning Up", "thank
you mister dj", "I Cry for Freedom", "Makoti",
"Motherland" and the ever-popular "Umqombothi"
("African Beer") ensured Yvonne's stardom.
The song "Umqombothi" was featured in the opening
scene of the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda.
Yvonne Chaka Chaka
From bubblegum popstar in the 1980's, to talkshow
presenter and host in the new millennium, Yvonne
Chaka Chaka is an entertainment icon of South Africa
and Africa.
Chaka Chaka first hit the South African music charts
as a teenager in 1984 with the explosive hit "I'm in
Love with a DJ". The disco sounds - shaped by the
producer Sello 'Chicco' Twala - built on the
mbaqanga roots of urban South African music, but
with a synthesised edge and English lyrics. The
style soon became known as 'bubblegum", and Yvonne
Chaka Chaka (alongside Brenda Fassi) was to remain
at its forefront for much of the 1980's.
Her powerful alto vocals were beautifully showcased
on her next hit - the 1988 album Umqombothi, with
song of the same title. This partying celebration of
African sorghum beer was certainly pop, but grooved
closer to a mbaqanga bassline, with a singalong
chorus which hooked not only South Africans, but
much of Africa.
Yvonne Chaka Chaka
By the late 1980's Umqombothi and Yvonne Chaka Chaka
were pan African flavours: she toured extensively in
Africa, playing stadium concerts in Nigeria, Kenya
and Zaire. Aside from the South African exiles, she
was South Africa's primary musical icon in Africa, a
legacy she still enjoys today.
Inspired in part by her extensive travels on the
continent, she shed her disco image, and restyled in
African head-dress and fabric, was repositioned as a
"Princess of Africa".
Yvonne Chaka Chaka
During the 1990's, she continued to tour - and sell
albums - in almost every sub-saharan country. She
has performed for a multitude of African
Heads-of-State, including historic occasions
accompanying the emergence of the new South Africa.
She is a patron of the "Giving and Sharing" project,
a campaign of "indigenous giving and philanthropy",
and is involved in a variety of fundraising and
benefit causes, notably the Orlando Children's Home,
and HIV work.
She released the album "Yvonne and Friends" late in
2000, which featured guests artists including Tsepo
Tshola, formerly of Sankomota. In 2002, she took on
the role of radio and tv presenter and talk show
host, consolidating her transformation from
"Princess of Africa" to that of a leading
businesswoman, entertainer and educator. She is
married to a Soweto physician, and is mother to four
sons.
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Yvonne Chaka Chaka
-
Singer and Musician - Johannesburg
