Thando Zide is on a generational run. In just over a month, the singer-songwriter has graced some of Johannesburg’s most treasured stages, lacing her otherworldly vibrations in front of audiences who can feel something rare stirring in the air.
Two days before Youth Day, she appeared on the Kids Love Jazz stage in Braamfontein to thunderous applause. A week later, she was a special guest at Untitled Basement during Nduduzo Makhathini’s on-going Open Dialogue series. Not long after, Untitled Basement announced her solo show. Tickets sold out within hours. A second date was added, and those disappeared just as quickly.
Speaking to Wanted over a video call, it’s after a full day of errands and back-to-back meetings. There’s a gentle composure to her, a quiet awareness of the weight she now carries, the expectation that comes when a voice as singular as hers announces itself to the world.
She’s been shouldering that weight since the release of uMvulo in 2023, an EP that arrived like a heavy downpour after a long drought: urgent, cleansing and impossible to ignore. But the thunderous entrance didn’t fade. It’s maintained a gentle thud ever since.
That collection of songs first found life in the form of phone recordings on Garage Band, which she wrote as early as 2017. She had her doubts. “There was a lot of anxiety, but a lot more excitement, for sure,” she said.
The EP features jazz royalty: Manana, Ndabo Zulu, and Thato Modika lend their touch, giving the project a free-flowing, improvisational edge that sets it apart from her R&B contemporaries. Guitarist Kaelan DiJulio provides an earthy spine to “iNtwenhle,” a folksy hymn about the all-encompassing power of love. Her voice is a wondrous stack of harmonies, featherlight but precise, the kind that slices straight through the heart.
There’s the church in that project. There are the spirits of her grandmothers, carrying her work with deep ancestral intent. And there’s a story arc, one that begins with love and openness, moves through heartbreak, betrayal and doubt, and eventually arrives at self-acceptance and healing.
Music-wise, things started in 2020 for the artist. “The first time I stepped into a studio … I think it was 2020. I was very nervous, I didn’t know what to do, I had to ask the guy how to put the headphones on,” she says.
“Even though my first session was in 2020, a lot of the times I recorded at home. I [had gotten] my own equipment so that I could [do that]. After the lockdown went away, the studios came back. It still felt like I was going into the studio for the first time. I started getting comfortable with it this year — going to the studio with other writers, other artists and producers,” says the artist.
“I can go on for hours. I forget to eat, I forget to stop, I forget all of that. When you’re in studio with other people, there are new dynamics, learning how different people work.”
Off the bat, Thando Zide received critical acclaim, which can be a lot to deal with for a young musician. “It was very shocking. One of the points I gave my producers around that time was that the EP as a whole wasn’t monotonous. It was different worlds brought together, so I was really shocked when people liked the work,” she expresses.
Kids Love Jazz was her first festival experience as she usually performs in such set-ups as a featured artist. “Having my own spot – I wasn’t sure of the people’s reception. When I prepare for a show, my most important factor is the satisfaction of the audience. Also, having young people – we’re such a vibe! It was amazing to have my peers there,” she recalls.
I get to write about my own experiences. Using those experiences and looking at them through the lens of wanting to heal is what drives how I write my music.
— Thando Zide, Musician and songwriter
”Even though I come from a musical background in terms of going to [National School of the Arts], when I went to varsity, I was completely away from the music scene. Unlike people who went to varsity and created their own bands from music school, I did a totally different degree. So, it was difficult getting into the industry not knowing people,” she says.
”I come from a family of healers. Two of my aunts from my dad’s side are izangoma. Having spent time with one of them, a herbalist focused on healing people, I had that orientation yokulapha abantu (to heal people). That led to social work and being interested in assisting people. I think it’s interesting how it came together with music as well. I get to write about my own experiences. Using those experiences and looking at them through the lens of wanting to heal is what drives how I write my music,” she says.
“Through my music, whatever the context of the song is, I try to heal. I don’t think it’s intentional, I don’t go on stage and say ‘I want to heal,’ but in my own time when I pray to God, I think ‘God, may this song be a healing experience to whoever hears it.’”
