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Amanda Black VibeZ

She sings in isiXhosa over contemporary production and has one of the most powerful voices in African music. Eleven tracks of Amanda Black.

Eastern Cape soul

Amanda Benedicta Antony, who records as Amanda Black, comes from the Eastern Cape of South Africa and emerged through a television talent competition before releasing Amazulu in 2016 — an album that went platinum in South Africa within weeks and established her as one of the country's most significant voices.

The important thing about her is linguistic. Much of her work is in isiXhosa, and she has been explicit about that as a choice rather than a default — a decision to make music that speaks directly to the people it is about rather than reaching first for English and an international audience. That the songs travel anyway is the point.

Her voice is enormous and gospel-trained, but she uses it with restraint, and her records combine Afro-soul, traditional Xhosa musical elements and contemporary South African production.

What to listen for

"ndandihleli," and "kutheni na," with Kwesta come from her more recent work — the lowercase titles with trailing commas are a deliberate stylistic choice across that album, suggesting sentences left unfinished.

"Amazulu"-era material and "Nguwe" are where she first made her name. "Love My Body" is the most explicitly political thing here and became something of an anthem.

"Afrika" with Adekunle Gold is the pan-continental collaboration, and it is a genuinely lovely record — a Nigerian and a South African finding common ground without either flattening their style.

"Khumbula" with Ami Faku pairs two of the finest voices in the country, and "ungayeki," with Berita does something similar.

"Waiting On Myself" with Major League DJz and Abidoza is the amapiano crossover, and "ekuphileni," with J'Something — of Mi Casa — is the smoothest.

Go deeper

Amazulu (2016) is the album to start with and remains her strongest single statement.

For the South African Afro-soul world she belongs to: Ami Faku, Zonke, Simphiwe Dana, Msaki and Berita are the essential names, and collectively they represent one of the strongest concentrations of songwriting talent anywhere.

For the tradition behind it: Miriam Makeba above all, then Busi Mhlongo and Brenda Fassie. Makeba's insistence on singing in Xhosa and Zulu to international audiences in the 1960s is the direct precedent for what Amanda Black is doing now.

One last point about why the language choice matters commercially as well as artistically. Streaming has quietly made regional-language music viable in a way radio never did — an isiXhosa record can find its audience without a gatekeeper deciding it will not translate. Amanda Black is one of a number of South African artists whose careers simply would not have been possible under the old distribution model, and the music is better for it: she never had to decide which half of her audience to write for.

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