{"id":18169,"date":"2023-03-17T15:41:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T13:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=18169"},"modified":"2023-03-17T15:41:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T13:41:35","slug":"amanda-black-returns-to-self-with-new-single-nguwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2023\/03\/17\/amanda-black-returns-to-self-with-new-single-nguwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Black Returns To Self With New Single \u201cNguwe\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Amanda Black returns with her signature mix of Afro Pop, hip hop, R&B, and deeply-rooted Xhosa influences to deliver an inspirational message of returning to self and self-love  with her new single \u201cNguwe\u201d .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Available all digital platforms. Listen Here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The single comes as Amanda \u00a0Black gears up to release her forth studio album, featuring new songs with her signature sound infusing R&B Soul and tribal African melodies. As she grows and discovers herself as an individual, a spiritual being and a musician, Amanda is on a journey of self-discovery. The music reflects on the better and more hopeful space she has come to in this journey, the single \u201cNguwe\u201d \u00a0sets the tone and follows the theme of the upcoming album. The music is about falling in love with self\u00a0, honoring yourself by self-acceptance. The overall theme and message is spiritual reconnection and trusting herself with her music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surfacing in 2016, that album was certified platinum a scant three weeks after its release and went on to earn Black numerous nominations and awards – including three South Africa Music Awards, two Metro Awards and a BET International Artist Of The Year nomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, Amazulu\u2019s mix of Afro Pop, hip hop, R&B, and deeply-rooted Xhosa influences secured Black a devoted fanbase that stretched right across the country. These music lovers quickly embraced her gift for telling authentic coming-of-age African stories through songs that touched on the universal experiences of love and heartbreak, of finding and losing yourself, of having hopes and dealing with fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in the background, Black was discovering that the road to becoming a fulltime artist wasn\u2019t easy \u2013 even one marked by commercial and critical success straight out of the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, when she began singing in church as a child growing up in the Eastern Cape, and even when she studied Music Education at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Black never imagined it would all be plain sailing. She knew there was no guarantee that, when she boarded a Greyhound bus headed for Johannesburg, she would return home with a story of success to tell. Too many talented musicians from her home town had made that same journey but had never returned – an experience captured with poignant insight on \u201cBayile\u201d, one of Power\u2019s standout tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Black never expected she\u2019d have to expend so much energy standing up for her artistic rights after she\u2019d become one of South Africa\u2019s most popular and awarded artists. There was even a moment when she thought, \u201cwhat am I doing this for?\u201d.  \u201cThe music industry is not what it looks like from the outside,\u201d the 25-year-old says, with just a flash of emotion. \u201cBecoming a singer is not what you imagine. It\u2019s a lot harder and a lot deeper. At that time, I asked myself, \u2018do you even still love music\u2019. I truly didn\u2019t know if I could continue to keep fighting to be treated with respect and fairness. There was a part of me that thought maybe music should just be a hobby \u2013 that I should just return to that happy place where I play my music and sing, for myself, my family and my community and it feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in spite of feeling helpless and hopeless at times, deep down Black knew that she still adored this thing called music; that the dream she\u2019s always had, of doing something that can change the world and heal people, remained intact. And so she went to the one place where she knew she could move through the dark and into the light and start writing music again: home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy family is like my compass,\u201d Black says, her words laced with gratitude and love. \u201cThey are always there to support me, especially my mom. Whenever I go home, it\u2019s to recharge. I can honestly say that being there is like getting my superpower back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside allowing her to feel the energetic power of her roots and the love of her family, being home enabled Black to make sense of the journey she\u2019d travelled so far. She\u2019d learnt to play and write on the guitar at 16 and, as part of reclaiming the purity of her love for making music, she returned to the instrument within the safety of home. \u201cThe sound of the guitar soothes me, and it reminds of when I would write and play music with no conditions, with no expectations,\u201d she says. Black also began working with the beats and melodies that she has on her phone, freestyling lyrics with no judgement or editing, letting her spirit feel its way forward through singing and playing and imagining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a renewed sense of her creative being propelling her, Black returned to Johannesburg. There she embarked on process of making Power and establishing her new label Afro Rockstar, in partnership with Sony Music. Power is a mix of autobiographical songs \u2013 a highlight is the light-hearted \u201cEgoli\u201d – and others, like first single \u201cThandwa Ndim\u201d, that see Black giving impactful voice to the experiences of women in the current socio-political moment.  The album features several love songs including \u201cLemme Go\u201d and \u201cLove Again\u201d, and includes the stunning \u201cHamba\u201d, a song about being thirsty for life, love, hope and happiness that features a chorus sampled from Margaret Singana\u2019s \u201cHamba Bhekile\u201d off \u201cShaka Zulu\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power sees Black once more working with producer Christer Kobedi and the album also has a special collaboration with keyboardist and producer, Kenneth Crouch. In the end, it\u2019s an album of inspiration, of motivation and of integrity. As the next musical calling card of a South African global artist in-the-making, it\u2019s breath-taking and is poised to bring Black back to where she belongs: performing  beautiful music for music lovers everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amanda Black returns with her signature mix of Afro Pop, hip hop, R&B, and deeply-rooted Xhosa influences to deliver an inspirational message of returning to self and self-love  with her new single \u201cNguwe\u201d . Available all digital platforms. Listen Here. The single comes as Amanda \u00a0Black gears up to release her forth studio album, featuring… Continue reading Amanda Black Returns To Self With New Single \u201cNguwe\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}