South Africa’s young songstress with the smooth voice.
Who is Amanda Black?
Amanda Benedicta Antony, better known as Amanda Black, is a singer-songwriter from South Africa. Amanda sings in her native tongue, Xhosa, but she also sprinkles in English lyrics. Amanda is easily recognizable with her traditional Xhosa face paint, which is her way of embracing and representing her Xhosa roots.
Amanda participated on the singing competition ‘South African Idols’ where she started to gain attention. In 2016 she released her debut album “Amazulu” which has now gone 3X Platinum in South Africa, winning album of the year in 2016. Amanda has even received international attention from the likes of BET.
Why did I pick this song?
I have long wanted to feature Amanda Black, but my challenge was picking a song. I am a total nerd for her music, sometimes I listen to these tracks for days at a time. My favorite Amanda Black song rotates like the days of the week. But, I keep coming back to “Buyela Kum”, which shouldn’t surprise me because the title translates “come back to me".
I like the swing in the rhythm which opens up the bright tones of the instrumentation. While the instruments fill the spaces up nicely, they always pull back and give room to Amanda’s richly expressive voice. The swoon of the backup vocals during the pre-chorus subtly shifts the tone of the song to mirror the lyrical intention, which brings us to the next section.
What is the song about?
The majority of the lyrics are in Xhosa with some English lyrics seasoned into the verses. In a nutshell, Amanda is deeply in love with someone who happens to love someone else. She fearlessly expresses the depth of her love for him while pleading for him to return to her.
During the first verse she sings “ndithanda wena wedwa” basically meaning ‘I only love you’, she then acknowledges that he does not love her alone. She boldly declares “I can’t breathe without you” to a person who knowingly loves someone else.
The chorus loosely translates this way…
Buyela kum' = Come back to me
Buyela kum' sthandwa = Come back to me, love
Nhliziyo yam' ifuna wena = My heart is looking for (wants) you
Ooh noba awundithandi = Even if you don’t love me
Ndizokuthanda = I will love you
Kuze kuyovalwa wena lovey wam' = Until you close, my love
In conclusion
Western society often overlooks true variety, especially regarding language and culture. I appreciate that while living in Southern Africa I have been exposed to multilingual and multicultural music that is embraced in the mainstream. I started listening to artists who sing in the Bantu family of Languages, like Xhosa and Zulu, because I am learning to speak siSwati. While these are most certainly different languages, they share enough similarities, with root words and rules, that it has helped train my ability to listen and learn.
Amanda Black has the power in her pipes to sing with the best of them. Her ability to seamlessly fluctuate between Xhosa and English allows her to swim between two oceans. If you are not bound by a singular language you can open up the ability to freely express yourself in any situation. “Buyela Kum” has a universal theme, but you must be interested and open to new languages and cultures to access powerful songs like this.
Siyabonga kakhulu (thank you very much),
Scott
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