THE TIMES OF NANA MAGAGULA

Watching the eccentric performances you could have wondered as to who is this lady with an explosive voice who was invited by South African contemporary tribal artist Thandiswa Mazwai on stage.
Not only will you question their friendship and the ‘lady’s’ voice which is scrumptious to the ear but you will also question her strong presence and unique afro centric dress sense.

Her name is Nana Magagula! The Nana and yes, she has lived and has represented the country in all ways, from her talents to her captivating words which flow through her lips to the style that she possesses.
Going on stage with Nana aroused many questions about her whereabouts as she oozed out nothing but talent while singing ‘Koboyi’ in a serenely trance mode.

Nana has been a household name, in Eswatini and beyond at least for more than a decade. After her trademark track ‘Koboyi’ and her album ‘Five Loaves and Two Fish’, this lady who is now 43 years, rose to fame and was big in the City of Gold.
“After all the fame, I had to sacrifice my career because I was aligning myself to God,” said the eccentric Nana to GCWALA in an exclusive interview.
She has lived, travelled, embraced art and still possesses that energy to change the world through being creative within her.
The name Nana Magagulacame about thanks to  her trainer Billie Holiday.

EARLY LIFE
Born on April 14, 1975, from Lucas and Elizabeth Magagula from Msunduza, Nana always knew that the arts were instilled in her DNA and back in those days, the arts were not considered as a career to live off.
Luck was drawn her way as her mother was welcoming of her early eccentric behaviour and this might have been caused by her artistic traits which included sewing and knitting and yet, she was also a banker.
“Surprisingly, my father was also encouraging after he found my songbook where I kept lyrics of some songs and also wrote my own songs,” she explained.

After the influence from TV and the National Library which was treasure of wonderment to Nana, she was convinced that she wanted to branch into music.
“Meeting Cecil Mbuli was my first live introduction to music as he bought me music by Nina Simon, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt and BB King who influenced the jazzy side of me. He also introduced me to Eswatini traditional music sang by emabutfo, tintfombi during Umhlanga, ingatja and all these were a medley which caused musical fertility in my mind. Cecil cultivated music in me,” she said.
That is when, at the age of 17, I joined a band called Soul Friends where she was a lead vocalist and the band constituted of Boy Shongwe (liSwati), Hendrik Brandt (Canada) and Mark Casey from Britain. They performed during jam sessions at Pine Valley and they rendered a fusion of jazz and rock music.

At the age of 19, Nana moved to the United Kingdom for six months to explore music. It is in London here she was exposed to neighbourhoods of hippies, jazz, reggae and all genres of music and this happened during the jam sessions she attended.
“Being in London was like being in a sweet store as a teenager for me. The musical diversity was incredible.

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