South African Diva, Sibongile, Looks to Start Afresh

South African Diva, Sibongile, Looks to Start Afresh

SAWW Awards

"Multi-Talented, soulful and dynamic, Sibongile Khumalo has enchanted diverse audiences all over South Africa and beyond.She interprets with integrity and poise a variety of musical genres. From traditional South African and European sounds, to jazzy melodies, she glides from world to world with specifically South African flavours."

South Africa: Diva Sibongile Looks to Start Afresh, And Be in Charge 

Business Day (Johannesburg)

INTERVIEW
March 9, 2007
Posted to the web March 9, 2007

Michael Bleby
Johannesburg

SIBONGILE Khumalo looks around. "It looks the same, so hopefully they've maintained the standard, somehow." The 49-year-old jazz singer chose the Chave Douro restaurant. She was last there four years ago, and had pulled out an old card when we earlier discussed where to meet.

"There's a great -- I hope it still is -- Portuguese place in Bedfordview," she said at the time.

We meet at the restaurant, both equally late. It is a hot Wednesday and we sit on the balcony overlooking the Keywest Centre car park -- a very Johannesburg experience.

As we flick through the menu with its large seafood range, I follow Khumalo's lead and scratch calamari off the list. It is what her 16-year-old son chooses when he wants to be fancy, she laughs. She mimics his pronunciation: "Calama--ari".

The waiter comes over, wielding a tray of what look like dead shellfish. He has tiger, king and queen prawns. He has lobsters. He can make up seafood platters with lobster, kingklip, calamari, mussels and SS prawns.

"Can I stop you for a second?" Khumalo interrupts him, addressing me: "Are you a shellfish person?"

Not in that form, I respond.

"We're okay. Siyabonga," she says, dismissing him.

The waiter and his tray depart and and we laugh again, wondering whether the crustaceans laid out in front of us were fresh or the regular demonstration ones. She goes for the Norwegian salmon and I choose the Goan prawn curry.

We start by discussing record labels. I tell Khumalo I've been listening to her singing on a compilation CD under the Putumayo label -- but she says she wasn't aware the song was on it. It was agreed by her then label, Sony BMG.

"It's nice that they get the music, but it's your label's responsibility to let you know and that's what annoys me about how that kind of stuff happens."

It turns out that Khumalo has recently divorced herself from the record label of 12 years' standing that produced five albums. "Sony BMG in SA has become very, very massive. I have a feeling it's going to become unwieldy. Perhaps it is already, I don't know."

The company formed by the worldwide merger of Sony and BMG in 2004 created a company with a large number of labels and artists. It controls about a quarter of the global music market.

"It's big. The general feeling I get from the situation in SA is that the Sony people are feeling a little uncared-for."

Was this behind her decision to break with them?

"It's what gave me the final push to leave. When the merger happened, I had a feeling that it was time to start reconsidering that side of my professional life."

Changes at the company, including the departure of former Sony MD Lazzy Serobe, also hastened the decision, she says.

"My classical CD came out in November 2005 and I suppose because of the new regime, as it were, there was a shift there and nothing happened to it. It was released, but didn't move.

It's in the marketing that goes with it, and that's driven by the passion within the people that market it.

"So when I said 'please release me' they were like 'it's okay'. So I have the release letter at home. Ye--es!" she exclaims delightedly.

Labels have a lot of power over their artists and it is completely up to them to release an artist or not, Khumalo says.

"It depends how they perceive you. If they see you as a cash cow, the chances are you will struggle to get out. They would use a whole lot of things to hold on to you.

"Sometimes you can even be denied clearance simply on the basis that you bring stature to the label. You might not sell a lot of records, but there's intellectual value to your brand or your name. In my previous situation, that's how they saw me. They didn't see me as a cash cow, because I'm not a pop artist, but I guess the association was useful at that level. But the regime has changed and the priorities are different."

From the time the merger happened, Khumalo expected "difficulties" in this way, she says. She insists she is not upset that the label didn't regard her as valuable enough to hang on to.

"I really wanted out. It's about relationships. You can have the crappest contract in the world -- say 5% royalty for the past 10 years -- but if you're treated well, you balance that 5% out with other things and you stay -- forever. You could have a 20% royalty arrangement and be treated like dirt -- why stay?

 

South Africa: Diva Sibongile Looks to Start Afresh, And Be in Charge

 (Page 2 of 2)

"It's more than just the amount of money you're able to make out of the records you sell. It's about something else -- how else they see you, how else they value you."

Khumalo, a wife and the mother of three children, the oldest of whom is 28, started her recording career late. After finishing studies in music, including honours, at the University of Zululand -- where her father, Khabi Mngoma, taught music -- in the mid '80s, she took a different direction and studied a postgraduate diploma in human resources at Wits.