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MATHOKOZA’S MANDELA SONG COMES SECOND AT OLD MUTUAL

18/12/2013 05:15:00 BY NHLANHLA MATHUNJWA

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MBABANE - A locally composed song about the life of former South African President Nelson Mandela scooped second position in the Old Mutual Choral Music Festival.

This is according to the overall results of the festival which were delivered last week.

The song titled ‘Bayethe Mandela’ was composed by seasoned choral music composer and conductor Mathokoza Sibiya.
The song was composed in October this year and was among the songs that were sung by Sweet Sounds during the festival held at the ICC in Durban two weeks ago.
Sibiya was the choir’s conductor.

The choir managed to come second in the overall performance of the festival under the Standard Section.
The score sheets of the songs were handed over to the choirs that took part in the competition a week ago.
The choir sang the song on Saturday afternoon two days after the former president’s passing away had been announced.

The choir had the liberty of singing a song of its choice. When the choir left the country for Durban, it had prepared itself to perform the song since it had been composed locally and the choir was being conducted by the same person who had composed the song.
The judges were impressed with the creativity of the song especially the lyrics and eventually the song was scored in the second position under the own choice songs.

Confirm

Sibiya confirmed that the song was rated second and he believes the marks they got on the song help them to secure the second position in the overall of the competition.
“I am excited with the results. We just got the results and on this song, we were placed second.
We are excited about what happened and indeed I must thank the choristers for their commitment. We would not have performed this way had it not been for their commitment,” he said.

Sibiya said when they left the country they had planned to sing the song since it was their choice song.
“When we received the news that the former president had passed away, we were not sure whether to change the song or not. During our discussions as a choir, it was decided that we continue as planned. By then, we were motivated and wanted to sing the song even better. I believe it is one of the reasons why we ended up singing so well,” he said.

Sibiya said when he composed the song he was looking at some of the things Mandela had done.
“I was driven by some of the good things people were saying about Mandela.

“I then decided to write the song and when we were told that we would have to sing a song of our choice, I thought it was perfect to use that song as we understood it better,” he said.
Sibiya said he was hoping that the choristers will continue with the good work as they have shown that they have the potential to make things happen,” he said.