Growing up, she remembers jamming to the song.
To date, she’s met many people who’ve heard memories to the very same song.
Everything happens for a reason and for that reason, one must keep holding on.
That’s essentially the message of the song.
She may have not known how powerful those lyrics were as a child but now that Makhosazana ‘Azana’ Masongo is older, it lands deeper.
The ‘Your love’ hitmaker has revisited the Jean Baylor classic song to bring the song to her gen-z cohort the same way DJ Sbu remade it for the millennials.
“For me specifically, I remember the home I grew up in. I remember the walls were blue and I would always cry to my parents to sing, and I would stand in front of the tv when the music comes on and I would dance and sing for them. At the time that this song (DJ Sbu’s version) was very popular, my brother was alive and now he’s no more. It takes me back to growing up with my brother, it takes me back to a time when my parents were younger and looking back at it makes me emotional.”
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“A lot of people when they listen to a song that they grew up listening to, it brings back a lot of memories. For most people that I’ve met, it’s always happy memories [with this song from] an innocent time in their lives. We decided to bring it back because we wanted people to feel that kind of way and we were able to get that out,” the 23-year-old musician adds.
The feedback that she and the Major League DJs have received after dropping the song on 8 March has been nothing short of heartwarming.
In changing the sound, they creatively infused an upbeat soulful amapiano element to it, adding her vocals to the mix with the collaborative efforts of John Lundun, Ntokzin, Bless De La Sol and Phonikz.
For her, the Major League DJs were a perfect feature in the song because of how she admires their love for each other and the music that they make.
“One thing that I’ve really enjoyed watching from them is the love they have for each other and how seriously they take their music and how they feel about their music as well. You can tell that they connect with their music and so I needed people who’d understand what we’re trying to convey to people and they’re a perfect description of family love,” says the singer and songwriter.
Originally released 30 years ago, the song talks about the deep and genuine connection between two people and the lyrics suggest that the relationship is not by chance but has a purpose or reason, highlighting the meaningful and destined nature of their connection.
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The song became popular in the early 2000s from a remix by DJ Sbu featuring The Observers. The original writer and composer Jean Baylor, who was part of Zhane, was so impressed by the way Azana paid homage to Zhane's work that they immediately gave their blessing for the song to be released and cleared it.
“For me to have gotten the permission that I got from the original creators of the song was something that was great for me as an artist because this is a Grammy-nominated artist who’s done a lot of things and is more experienced than me and so to have someone that big tell me that they trust that we’ll execute the song well was a stamp for me that I’m going somewhere with my career and I appreciate every single thing.”
She adds that a nod directly from Jean on the song also means that they will not face any legal problems in promoting the song or even making money from the song.
