Interview with Freshlyground

Freshlyground: Healing Africa with Music

By Sergio Henriques

It was a windy day in the Mother City of Cape Town and I was joined by co-founder of Biz-Genie Morné Kleinhans. We settled at Rotisserie 360 on Bree Street, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Freshlyground band members and slowly they started to appear. They were, Simon Attwell (Flautist & Saxophonist), Zolani Mahola (Lead Vocalist) and Kyla-Rose Smith (Violinist & Backing Vocalist).
For those who don’t know Freshlyground, they are an Afro-pop band consisting of 7 members. They started out in 2002 and have since released 4 albums, namely “Jika Jika”, “Ma’Cheri”, “Nomvula” and most recently, “Radio Africa”. Their music represents the voice of Africa with the use of traditional African instruments, lyrics and sounds. They also featured alongside Shakira in the making of the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010 opening song “Waka Waka”.
Freshlyground have also won various awards, including Best African Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2006 and Album of the Year in 2007 for “Ma’Cheri” at the annual South African Music Awards (SAMA). Kyla-Rose and Zolani also jointly won “Woman of the Year” at the Glamour Magazine 2011 Awards earlier this year.
It was particularly chilly so we huddled together outside at the corner-street restaurant and began our interview.

Read the interview here: Biz-Genie Exclusive Interview with Freshlyground by Sergio Henriques