A video of singing teens taken in a classroom when a teacher had briefly stepped out went viral, yielding award nominations, recording deals and instant fame for a quintet of Plettenberg Bay youngsters.
Although the video was taken in 2016 at Murray High School by a fellow pupil, it became the a cappella group’s ticket to fame nearly a year later – with their first album completed three months ago.
The group, Abantwana, have been nominated for the Ingoma Awards for best gospel single and song of the year.
Abantwana have also been nominated for the SA Traditional Music Achievement Awards (Satma) for best song of the year, best newcomer and best afro soul album.
Yonela Dube, Nonhlanhla Mzola, Camagu Masiko, Fana Gudula and Zimi Manqoba, all aged18, seem unfazed by their fame, which was fast-tracked by doing covers of popular a cappella group The Soil.
Although some of the members are still at school and all live in different towns, they have successfully recorded a 10song album, Intonga Yakho, which has been well received by South Africans since its release three months ago.
Group member Manqoba, a first-year BSc student at Nelson Mandela University, said he always aspired to fame, though he was introverted.
“I always wanted to be famous and I looked up to people like Justin Bieber and Chris Brown, who got their fame at a young age – and I saw the positive and negatives of that.”
Though Abantwana is fairly new in the industry, people do recognise the singers and want to take photos with them.
“It is exciting when people want pictures with me, but sometimes I feel as if strangers are invading my space and sometimes wish I could be invisible,” Manqoba said.
He admitted he had expected at least one nomination.
“When the nomination happened, I was very excited because it was something that I was praying for.
“The nomination that caught us by surprise was for the song of the year.”
The group’s beatboxer, Masiko, said the whole experience, from nearly being caught by their teacher while singing in class, to going to Johannesburg to record their album and the nominations, was all exhilarating for him.
“After we uploaded the video online, it went so viral that even our school was scared they might have to face repercussions from the department of education because of where the video was taken.
“Dozens of people called the school wanting to work with us – we didn’t know what to do. We then had to convince our parents to allow us to go to Johannesburg to meet our manager, Sis Diana [Genu].
“We were so nervous because it was our first time in Johannesburg but thankfully everything went well,” he said.
Genu, founder of Imbokodo Productions, which signed them in 2017, said the group were proud of what they had achieved.
“They have done extremely well for newcomers – their album is doing well on digital platforms and they have over a million views on YouTube for just their single,” she said.