Category: Radio 2; Africa
Date: 21.10.2005
Printable version
Brenda Fassie - Madonna of the Townships, 91Èȱ¬ Radio 2, Tuesday 15 November 2005, 8.30-9.30pm
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Neneh Cherry presents a tribute to Brenda Fassie, South Africa's first pop music 'celebrity', who died in May 2004.
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Dubbed the 'Madonna of the Townships', Fassie's story melds a remarkable public success story with a catastrophic private life.
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Named after the US country singer Brenda Lee, Fassie began performing at just five years old.
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As a teenager she was spotted by music producer Koloi Langa and she was soon on her way to Johannesburg to begin her professional career.
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Brenda and the Big Dudes shot to fame in the Eighties with the bubble-gum hit Weekend Special, which became the fastest selling record of the time.
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Multi-platinum solo success and a hugely successful creative partnership with producer/songwriter Sello 'Chicco' Twala was to follow with songs that carried marginalised South Africans through the dark days of apartheid.
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Fassie's highs included record sales and an array of music accolades, including four consecutive South African Music Awards.
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However, her personal lows were much less glitzy.
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A failed marriage, drug abuse, non-appearances at concerts and debt culminated in her 1995 nadir when she woke in a drug-induced state next to the dead body of her lesbian lover, Poppie Sihlahla, who had died of an apparent drug overdose.
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A miserable period followed, including a spell in a drug rehabilitation centre.
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But in 1997 Fassie reunited with Twala to record Memeza (Shout) which she later described as the album that epitomised her life.
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It was a new start that confounded her critics: Memeza was South Africa's best selling album of 1998 and, in the same year, Fassie scooped the Kora Award for best female artist.
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A string of best-selling albums and awards followed. Now at her career zenith Fassie said: "Tell them Brenda's back!"
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But she never completely won her battle with drugs and alcohol, and her visits to the rehab clinic continued.
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In April 2004 she was rushed to hospital with breathing problems that led to an asthma attack and then cardiac arrest.
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Her renown was such that, when she died on Sunday 9 May, her funeral attendees included Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, South African President Thabo Mbeki and members of the government cabinet.
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This tribute-laden programme - part of the 91Èȱ¬ Africa season - recalls the highs and lows of Fassie's life, whose music tells her story and that of many black South Africans whose aspirations she articulated in song.
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Tributes to Brenda
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"Brenda is gone. She was not only a South African singer, but a Pan-African griot [an African storyteller - someone who tells of traditions and history of a family, tribe, country, village], making souls rise in bliss wherever her voice reached." - President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.
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"Brenda inspired just about every singer, when she burst on to the scene she came like a breath of fresh air. People needed music to put them out of the misery of the lives they were living at the time... before there was democracy, there was Brenda's music and I think to a large degree that explains why she is held in such high regard by the masses here in South Africa." -
Koloi Lebona, legendary South African Music Producer.
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"Brenda's story tells the story of hope - she broke down stereotypes and myths in society of the recipe for success. She forced you to look at her in the eye and to deal with her... she was a character. I'd like to remember her for her talent and her music." -
Leslie Sedibe, EMI South Africa.
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