If ever there was a South African story of rags to riches, anonymity to superstardom, then it’s that of Batsugile Rebecca Malope, who recently became a member of SAMRO.
Just crunch on these statistics for starters. 2005 saw Rebecca release her 22nd studio album, adding even more numbers to the two million plus albums she had sold in 2003, when she released her historic 20th album.
These past few years have also seen the release of her Greatest Hits (a fully deserving title) and a DVD. Rebecca also has more awards than just about any of her peers, winning the Best African Gospel album in 2004 (for Hlala Nami), 2003 (for Iyahamba Lenqola) and 2002 (for Sabel’Uyabizwa.) In November 2005 she also took home the Best Gospel Award at the Metro FM Music Awards held in Port Elizabeth and judging by her enthusiastic reaction, there’s nothing jaded about this bonafide South African (and African for that matter) superstar.
But stepping back in time reveals a story about a teenager from the township of Ganyamazani near Nelspruit, who came to Johannesburg in search of a dream but nearly got swallowed up by the hardship of life as a destitute youngster in a big, unforgiving city.
It may be hard to believe now but in the 1980s Rebecca was living a semi-rural life at home, working on a tobacco farm, earning a ration of mealie-meal, beans, salt and sugar and R10,50 a week. Barely able to read and write and in possession of just a handful of English words, Rebecca had only managed to reach standard five (something she always regrets and the singer has since vigorously made up for her lack of education by taking several courses over the years and always preaching the value of education to her fans).
But singing provided Rebecca with the possibility of another life. As she told Pace magazine in 1993: "Back home in Nelspruit my grandfather was a church minister. He brought all six grandchildren up in a mission house where prayer and hymns were part of our daily lives. I was not aware of my God-given talent for singing until some members of the congregation pointed out that: ‘Wow - can this Malope daughter sing!’". In those days, as she related to the Sunday Times in 1991, it was also the voices of some of the best soul singers who provided inspiration. "I wanted to sing. I wanted to be like Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Anita Baker. But using my own voice."
And so, in search of this dream, Rebecca and her older sister, Cynthia ran away from home in 1985– ending up in the township of Evaton, south of Johannesburg, nothing more than a teenage (she was 17 at the time) runaway with seemingly impossible goals to reach. Soon she began singing – but not in the way she’d imagined: taking the female lead vocalist chores in a two-women, nine-man outfit called Safika. "We stayed in a two-room shack belonging to a coal merchant," Rebecca relates. "There was no furniture, just a lot of empty bottles and cases of beer. We put the cases together and put old door-frames on top. These were our beds. I kept thinking, I want to go back home to my parents. But I knew they would be cross with me."
But there was something else that encouraged the diminutive Rebecca to stay in such difficult circumstances – the chance to enter the Shell Road to Fame Talent Search in 1985. Unfortunately Safika’s stab at glory (a cash prize and the chance of a recording contest) never came to fruition but Rebecca’s powerful and unique voice captured the attention of independent Joburg based record producer, Sizwe Zako. And although Sizwe was interested in her talents from then on, it was only after a chance meeting in October 1996 that Rebecca and Sizwe joined forces for the first time. Sizwe had penned a moving song, titled "Shine On", and he wanted Rebecca to sing it, alone, at the 1987 Shell Road To Fame talent search contest.
The rest, as they say, is history: With absolute ease, Rebecca won in the Shell Road To Fame Best Female Vocalist category in 1987. Aside from her obvious vocal magnetism, Rebecca’s performance at that event is memorable for other reasons – not least of which was the way her poverty at the time forced her to compromise on her stage clothes. "I couldn’t afford the right garments for the glittering occasion," she recalled in an interview. "I borrowed the baggy pants from Tu Nokwe … and jazz singer, Mara Louw lent me her evening top and a broad belt … It was a gesture that I will remember for as long as I live."
In spite of scooping the Shell Road To Fame award, Rebecca didn’t immediately step into a glittering career. Finding a record company to take her on was a struggle, so she worked with Sizwe and (manager) Peter Tladi, to record and release her debut album, Thank You Very Much (1989) which wasted no time in reaching gold status (25 000 units).
Gospel is always where Rebecca’s heart has lain – after all, it was faith that enabled her to overcome the adverse conditions of her life and "Shine On" was the title of the song that got her the attention at that Shell Road to Fame concert. Yet, in spite of her spectacular gospel voice, there were several attempts to place Rebecca in the township pop genre for the first few years of her professional career. Songs like "Ma G-Man", "Cheated" and "Saturday Night" were no shabby affairs but it was her Gospel songs that got Rebecca’s fans talking at her increasingly-popular live shows.
So, in 1990, Rebecca went back to her musical roots and became an out-and-out Gospel singer. "It is not a mistake that I changed from pop to gospel but a deliberate development in my career which expresses my appreciation for all that God has done for me," Rebecca has said. "I regard myself as His servant and that of the people." In many interviews, she expresses her desire to be a role-model for the youth – and Rebecca’s sense of social and moral responsibility is virtually unparalleled in the SA music scene. It has earned her an honourary doctorate from (university name here) and many other accolades.
But, for all the glory, in the end it’s the people – the ordinary working folk – of South Africa and beyond whom Rebecca touches with her incredible voice, her inspirational lyrics and her beautiful music. "Rebecca’s songs are all about salvation," a group of youngsters from Alexandra township told Bona magazine in July 1998. "The songs are nice and they really change one. It is through them that we attend church – we’ve been saved through her songs."
It’s a recurring response to Rebecca’s music – and one which the performer feels has a great deal to do with the way she is with her fans. As she says: "By being myself people open up to me and as such I am able to communicate with people from all walks of life." The latter is particularly telling: Rebecca’s music indeed reaches people from all walks of life and from all over the world. Some of her performing successes include: singing at Nelson Mandela’s Presidential inauguration in 1994; performing with the National Symphony Orchestra in 1994; playing the Pretoria State Theatre in 1995; packing out the Natal Playhouse Opera Theatre in November 1997; igniting the stage at a Gospel festival in Washington DC in 1997, and performing in countries like Israel (where she made history by travelling to Israel where a CCV TV crew shot a 52-minute Easter special for national broadcast on Good Friday, 15 April 1995), the UK, America and many African countries including the DRC and Zambia.
Despite all of these tremendous accomplishments and accolades, heartaches and struggles, Rebecca refuses to forget her roots and her biggest mentor, her Lord. "I regard myself as a simple person and will not be swayed by my success and achievements to become something that I am not. All my life I wanted to sing and it is because I believed in the Lord, who has blessed me with a wonderful talent that I have reached the heights I have come to."
And she’s always pushing herself forward – in particular honing her songwriting talent. Since she joined SAMRO Rebecca has notified more than 70 songs! Like everything she tackles (setting up a recording studio with Jabu Nkabinde, driving her own career), Rebecca’s still full of passion for her music. "I feel like my career is just starting," she says. "Music has been good to me. Every awards show and every concert is a chance for me to give something back."
