Award-winning singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and pan-African storyteller Zoe Modiga hopes that being announced as the only female from SA to perform at this year’s international North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands will open doors for other local females.
Modiga will share the stage with giants such as Diana Ross, Erykah Badu, Robert Glasper and Nile Rodgers in July, where she will continue telling the SA and African stories she packed into her previous two albums, Yellow: The Novel and her sophomore 2020 release, Inganekwane.
“It is a powerful and amazing thing and I am grateful. I truly respect the other people on the line-up... I hope this is the beginning of a conversation that again there are so many incredible black female young artists that should be on that stage,” she said.
This feat is also important to her because she believes that for the longest time when one speaks of touring African and SA artists, cultural icons like Miriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya become the go-to names and there hasn’t been much in terms of the lineage that has been explored after.
“So I think it’s an important time for the world to see that we are an evolving people with a message that comes from such incredible artists and icons. But there’s a definite current and evolving story that we’re telling in the here and now so that when people think about our country and our continent, it isn’t just with reference to our cultural icons but it knows exactly the things that we speak to through our music in the current time,” she said.
Nduduzo Makhathini and Malcolm Jiyane are among others who will grace the stage.
While Modiga celebrates five years as a recording artist and an added 15 years as a performance artist, she is grateful that her work is being recognised.
“I hope to never truly feel that I have arrived in anything because there is always the next space to grow in. I hope to have a childlike perspective when it comes to music and what it means to those that experience me through it as well.
“Sharing a stage with such big artists is a dream come true. Diana Ross and Erykah Badu are among the artists that meant so much to me while growing up. I've had the privilege of sharing a festival line-up with Erykah Badu but seeing us going to the global stage is something completely different and it articulates something completely different. I do hope it organically leads to some collaboration, should those come to pass. Collaborations are not processes that I like to gun for but like to see those organically happen and believe it comes towards me if it’s meant to,” she said.
The artist is also gearing up for her thanksgiving show titled Ukubonga that she will stage at the Lyric Theatre at the end of April.
“It’s a thanksgiving show, especially when we reflect on all that we have been through. This show is similar to us all meeting at a table and sharing some turkey, some seven colours but we’ll be doing that through music; allowing music to heal us in the way that it is known to,” she said.
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