Zoë Modiga eager to celebrate life & new show at the Lyric Theatre

JOHANNESBURG - "I’ve had some heartfelt past experiences with music lovers at the Lyric Theatre. This time around, I look forward to celebrating life and having this be a thanksgiving for all we’ve overcome," said Zoë Modiga to Eyewitness News.

Up next at the Bassline Live at the Lyric Theatre Series, in association with BET, is Zoë Modiga, the multitalented award-winning singer, songwriter, performer, collaborator, and ultimate storyteller.

"My first memory of me singing was around 5, we would mindlessly make play-play songs with my neighbours. It helps that my neighbours also had such a varied taste in music that I was very early on exposed to such a wide palette of sounds. I fell in love with how music was the soundtrack to our lives, and it still is," she said.

Modiga will be presenting a special bespoke show titled UKUBONGA (Gratitude), on 30 April. The evening is set to be a night to remember, to feel gratitude for life via the universal language of music, moment by moment, beat by beat.

This year, Bassline, which has evolved over the years since being founded in 1994 by Brad Holmes and currently offers mobile live music, producing and promoting live concerts for broadcast and live audiences, as well as festivals, said that it was taking the series up a notch with multi-disciplinary artist collaborations.
Bassline continues its musical legacy of hosting, supporting, and developing female musicians of extraordinary talent, originality, and all-round star quality.

Doors at The Lyric Theatre at Johannesburg's Gold Reef City open at 7pm on 30 April. The show starts at 8pm. The support act for the night is BandaBanda and the Crocodiles.

"I will be performing with my music family of world-class musicians: Sthe Bhengu, Lungelo Ngcobo, Urban Nobela, BandaBanda, and Ire Bolaji whom I love dearly. This show is special because we have pulled through a lot as a family and being able to continue to tell our story and have it affirm and celebrate others is so meaningful. Outside of them music I think we will all be meeting at this gathering of thanksgiving on a very human level, thankful for all we have moved through," Modiga said.

Zoë Modiga, born and raised in KwaZulu-Natal, is the quintessential artist who represents the present and future of South African music. Drawing from human experiences, identity and storytelling, she creates a distinct sound to communicate a modern, evolving African story without losing its essence.

"I hope people will appreciate the beauty of us celebrating our lives, our stories, the bodies we come in, and our purpose, that none of us are simply spectators of each other’s lives, but we are also authors of our own and that can be the most powerful thing that compels others to truly see ourselves. When we see ourselves we recognise we are part do something so much bigger and that is what magic is made of," said Modiga to Eyewitness News.

The songbird's career took centre stage when she won the 2015 SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition for jazz. She became a recording artist in 2017 after plying her trade as a performer for more than a decade.

In 2018, she released her 23-track debut album Yellow: The Novel, which earned her two South African Music Award nominations for best African artist album and best jazz album. What followed was a series of performances at Aardklop Festival, Artscape Youth Jazz Festival, UCT Jazz Festival, Joy of Jazz, and the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.

In 2020, she released Inganekwane, an album that is brewed with West African rhythms, southern African sensibilities, and heartfelt Zulu storytelling.

"I am grateful to be an observer and student of life through and through, to be able to communicate so many incredible lessons that life teaches. I am grateful that I am still able to touch the core of my music lovers by sharing songs that speak to them. I am grateful for those that come before me that have laid such a soft landing for my voice to be heard, and I am grateful I get to do the same simply by heeding the call," she said.

As a performer, no stage is too big or too small for Modiga, who is always making eye contact with the audience, is light on her feet with movements ever so natural and always performs with her audience, never for them, making sure that they feel like they are part of the show instead of watching from afar.

The songbird has collaborated with some of South Africa’s finest musicians, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Lira, Thandiswa Mazwai, Johnny Clegg, Simphiwe Dana, Abigail Kubeka, Madala Kunene, Louis Maholo, Tshepo Tshola and many more.

Internationally, she has played at many festivals and world tours and recently performed at the launch of Somi's album Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba, which featured iconic acts such as Bra Hotstix Mabuse, Thandiswa Mazwai, Nduduzo Makhathini and Msaki.

"It was beautiful to see how the legacy of Mama Africa was so wonderfully represented by the lineage in the line-up. I have had the honour of sharing the stage with most of the artists - what I particularly appreciated this time was the contagious laughs, thoughtful conversations, and intimate time we had backstage. We all connected and I believe that energy and chemistry was felt even by the audience. I am sure it is one of those moments we will collectively remember a long time from now and I hope her spirit feels proud for all that she gave to us with her life, her activism, and music," Modiga said.
On 9 July, she will be at the Rotterdam North Sea Jazz Festival.

"We will be sharing the world stage with the likes of our very own Malcolm Jiyane, Bokani Dyer and Nduduzo Makhathini and other acts such as Robert Glasper, Nile Rodger’s, Erykah Badu, Alicia Keys, Diana Ross to name a few. I was very emotional when I saw the official line up, I literally sobbed. It has always been about taking our stories to the world for me, that has always been the dream, the goal, and the plan and it’s so beautiful to see it happen in my lifetime where Africa is being represented, as it was, with the likes of Miriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu, Caiphus Semenya, Fela Kuti to name a few on the world stage," Modiga said.

An authentic, compelling artist challenging the status quo, Zoë Modiga is steadily creating an immortal legacy of cultural impact through music, fashion, and storytelling.
"I’d explain my music as music that is good for the soul. An expression and celebration of the human experience that draws from the past wisdom and brings it into the present. I’ll leave the genre conversation to others," she said.

Zoë Modiga presents UKUBONGA at Bassline Live at Lyric Theatre on 30 April 2022 in association with BET.