Simphiwe Dana is a Xhosa pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 singer in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. With her unique combination of jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, pop, and traditional music

Traditional music

Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...

, she has been hailed as the "new Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....

".

In 2005, Simphiwe Dana won the "Best Newcomer" award at the 11th South African Music Awards

South African Music Awards

The South African Music Awards are an annual award ceremony, run by the Recording Industry of South Africa , where accolades are presented to members of South Africa's music industry. Winners receive a statuette is called a SAMA. The event was established in 1995...

 with her first album "Zandisile". Two years later, she was named the "Best Female Artist", with the song "The One Love Movement on Bantu Biko

Steve Biko

Stephen Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the...

 Street", at the 13th South African Music Awards.

Simphiwe Dana is also active in the world music

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

scene in Europe.

She schooled at the Vela Private School in Mthatha, from which she matriculated in 1997. Her tertiary education pursued her interests in graphic design, and she successfully studied for her National Diploma in IT at the Wits Technikon, Johannesburg. Dana’s music draws strongly on her upbringing in the Transkei, and she sites the powerful singing of her mother as an inspiration for her and her siblings, and ultimately as a key motivator in her resolve to pursue her musical career.

She has maintained a strong presence, with consistent radio play and live appearances at key national events and Festivals such as Arts Alive, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz. In September 2005, travelling to perform in Vereeniging, she was involved in a serious road accident. She was hospitalised for a week and needed reconstructive surgery, but fortunately gave birth to a healthy baby boy. In the ensuing period, she took time out to prioritise her maternal role and also for her own healing.

With two commercially-successful and critically acclaimed albums to her credit, she maintains a busy live performance roster, which increasingly includes international dates.

Her third album, Kulture Noir, was released in the summer of 2010.

External links

• Official home page
• Review of "The One Love Movement on Bantu Biko Street" at the BBC website