Vusi+Mahlasela

Vusi Mahlasela is an African singer/ songwriter that grew up in the Mamelodi Township just outside of Pretoria South Africa. When Vusi was a kid, black South African music was banned from being played on the radio and in homes due to a cultural boycott, so Vusi and his neighbor friends formed a band and listened to American records in a local pub. Vusi learned to play the guitar on his own and even built his first guitar out of fishing line and cooking oil. He inspired many people to write their own kind of music during the Soweto Uprising, where 200 black Africans were killed. Everyone was devastated by this event, but Vusi's music helped a lot of people feel better and make people happier.

Vusi's songs are mainly about freedom, peace, love, revolution, and our daily lives. He became known as "The Voice," and started writing songs about the crime going on in Africa after he joined a poetry group called, The Ancestors of Africa. As he started writing about the crimes in Africa, he got arrested and was held for solitary confinement. After his jail time, Vusi was signed to Shifty Records and recorded his first album there. After a few years he made another album called "//When You Come Back//" and also sang at Nelson Mandela's Presidential inauguration in 1994 and turned one of his singles into a big hit. After the inauguration people played his song at parties, in cars, and in the homes of both black and white families. "The Voice" was soon heard all around the world, and is now preforming in concerts and different types of music at his new studio, ATO Records. Vusi Mahlasela impacted many peoples lives during bad times and is still preforming in concerts today.