In the past decade, chanteuse Thabsie has found mainstream success as an Afro-pop girlie on songs Ngiyaz’fela Ngawe, Macala, and African Queen. But she wants you to know her plan was always to become an R&B girlie.
Inspired by the ever-freshness wave of artists like Elaine and Nanette embracing classic R&B music in a new way, Thabsie will no longer succumb to industry pressure to box her in. She’s in the studio reinventing her sound. When can fans expect to hear it? Around her birthday in November, she quips.
“I doubted myself [in the beginning] and didn’t go with what I wanted to do. I allowed people to sometimes dictate what it is that I needed to do — in music, mainly. I wish I started to make the kind of music I wanted to make earlier,” she says.
“I’ve reached a point where I’m no longer making music to fit the mould and set the expectation that I have created. I’m doing more R&B because I wanted to do that 10 years ago. When I came out, coming out as an R&B girl wasn’t going to fly. If there wasn’t vernac in your song, you were not going to make it. So, when the likes of Shekhinah, Elaine, Nanette, and even Tyla came out, it was incredible to see.”
Thabsie has such a soothing voice she could sing the dictionary and I would melt every time. So, I’m taken by surprise when she mentions that she almost took a different career path.
The 33-year-old Cape Town-born singer grew up in a musical family. “It was embedded in my childhood. I started writing songs at a very young age, when I was eight years old. It was so normal to me that I thought singing was part of a daily routine, not a career to pursue,” she says.
After high school she moved to Gauteng, where she obtained an economics degree at the University of Johannesburg. She notes that, during her varsity years, music was always there. Thabsie entered a number of choral music competitions. To make extra cash she started doing backing vocals for artists like Donald, ProVerb, Khuli Chana, and Cassper Nyovest. Around the same time she was recording music with former YoTVn child star Sipho “Psyfo” Ngwenya. “It was a big deal to me to be a backing vocalist because I’m such a shy girl,” she remembers. “It also shaped me and prepped me for the kind of career I have had.”
Two months into her honours degree, she quit and got a job at an investment bank — that era lasted two years. In December 2015 she left and in January 2016 her breakout moment happened when Kwesta featured her on his mega hit Ngiyaz’fela Ngawe.
“It was incredible. It felt like my dreams were coming true,” she says. “I recorded that song maybe three or four years prior to the official release. I did it as a vocalist when I was still in varsity and at the time I didn’t even think Kwesta would put my name on it. When he released it, I knew it was meant to be, especially with the timing of it all, having just quit my job and not having a plan.”
Suddenly, she was the go-to vocalist on many Afro-pop records. Thabsie says it was never her intention; she’d set out to be an R&B singer. “That’s the girl I wanted to come out as and then the Kwesta song came out. It put me in this Afro-pop box,” she shares. “After I dropped an R&B song called Cry, people didn’t take to it. Then I dropped an Afro-pop song titled African Queen with some vernac and people took to it. I had to change my direction and the music I wanted to make. That was the lane I fell into.”
Another serendipitous shift was her career in digital-content creation, which kicked into high gear during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. “Lockdown was the first time I couldn’t perform music.
So, I decided to create content for free. I was sitting between 200k and 300k followers at the beginning of lockdown and during lockdown I reached 1-million followers,” she says. “It was a great way to grow my audience for when I come back with the music. In turn, I was also growing my personal brand and now big brands were aligned. I love fashion and beauty, and I love creating.”
At home, she’s a wife and a mother to four dogs. She got married at 23 and this year it’s her 10th wedding anniversary. She insists that she’s no “tradwife”. “I don’t cook or clean. I just spend time with my husband,” Thabsie laughs. “I don’t have any kids and I love my dogs. I exercise and that is it. I love being a minimalist and doing things that are peaceful and good for the soul.”
Thabsie’s body is so banging (check out her cover shoot) that social media has even started to speculate that she’s had plastic surgery. She volunteers to clear the rumours — she has not had any work done aside from her boobs in May. “I want people to know that I work hard on my body and I’m tired of the plastic surgery and BBL [Brazilian butt lift] allegations. I can’t believe I’m getting BBL allegations — I’m so small, where would I get the fat from? I’m very honest and I’ve done my boobs, that’s it,” she clarifies.
“I have wanted them since I was 21. I thought they would grow. Then I thought to myself, I want to get my boobs done before I have kids. I want to enjoy my dream body. It was a surprisingly easy process. I wasn’t in pain, but I was uncomfortable. I was back up within three to four days.”
Next on her to-do list is launching her clothing label. She has been working on it for the past two years. Her plan is to release an athleisure line that redefines activewear and pushes the envelope.
