Preparations are in full swing for a tribute album to the legendary country singer Johnny Clegg, who has passed away – an unremarkable and favorite of many music lovers, due to his singing ability.
Those plans were revealed by the singer’s son, who is also a singer – Jesse when he talked to Solezwe about his father’s song “Woza Friday (Remake), which he remade in collaboration with the masked singer Sminofu, who is also one of the best artists in this role.
Jesse said that the thought of all this started when his father recently died in 2019, where he began to bother himself by thinking of the way and strategy he could use to ensure that his name and contributions are not forgotten by the people.
“I worked with Masaki to research how we can make my father respect in the right way, then we put together a list of 12 artists that we thought we should work with to prepare this album of his songs that we will remake.
“One of the things that motivated me to do this is that there were already artists who contacted me, asking to use some of my father’s songs again to honor him because of his contributions in the field of music and art in general,” Jesse said.
Sminofu said that this was a very good and pleasant feeling for him as he did not expect anything, and he did not think that he is at a level and stage where his musical contributions are still good enough to be needed in a big job like this.
“I think and believe that this step we have taken will help Johnny’s name not to be forgotten, and encourage others not to forget artists who have played an important role in music and art like him,” he said.
Jesse revealed that beyond Sminofu; other artists who collaborated in this idea Zakes Bantwini, Thatohatsi, Sjava, Tresor, Mvzzle, Sun-EL Musician, J Something, Simmy, Zolani Mahola and Jabulani Majola.
He said that these artists will perform at the Scatterlings Festival on August 1 in Huddle Park, Johannesburg – where they will have the opportunity to perform some of the songs that will be on the album that they plan to release at the end of the year.
Johnny Clegg, who died in 2019 at the age of 66, was a country singer born in the United Kingdom on June 7, 1953. He was a talented songwriter, dancer, folklorist and anti-apartheid activist. He began to flourish in collaboration with Sipho Mchunu and released Woza Friday in 1976.