Grammy-winning choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo has teamed up with Nigerian superstar Burna Boy on his new album,Love, Damini.
Lead singer of the choir Sibongiseni Shabalala spoke to SunBuzz about working on two songs: Gloria and the title track, Love, Damini.
Sibongiseni said Burna Boy, who’s also a Grammy-winner, asked to work with them.
“We got a call from his manager in 2021 saying that he wanted to feature us in his upcoming album but we couldn’t do anything at that time because we were still under lockdown, so we just let it pass. However, they called us again early this year, wanting to see if it was still possible to do something on his songs and we agreed,” he said.
Sibongiseni said once they started working, everything went smoothly.
“We asked that they send the song so we can listen. We agreed that we can try something, but we wanted Burna to give us his idea of what he wanted. We spoke on the phone and he also sent a voice message saying he thought maybe we can create something in the beginning of the song and at the end, like we did for the album we worked on for Paul Simon.
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“Burna sent the complete song of what he had already recorded and then we created something and sent it back to him for mixing,” he said.
“We are very happy that a young man with such success as Burna has achieved is still able to look back and say ‘what can I do with my fellow Africans, especially an older group like Ladysmith Black Mambazo’,” he said.
“My father used to say it’s good to work with the young people because they make you feel young.
“Also in terms of the music, it is good because collaborations like this one help to fulfil the vision of Ladysmith Black Mambazo of spreading and promoting our traditional music to all four corners of the world,” he continued.
The songs are available on digital streaming platforms.
