Music
Peerless
Sibongile Khumalo
1957 – 2021
Sang at Mandela's inauguration, and created the title role in the first African opera
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the South Africa Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
She sang at Mandela's inauguration in 1994 and at the Rugby World Cup final the year after — and was the first person ever to sing Princess Magogo, the title role of the first opera written in an African language.
Sibongile Khumalo was a South African singer and songwriter who moved between classical, jazz, opera and traditional South African music with a completeness few singers anywhere have managed.
She sang at Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994 and at the Rugby World Cup final in 1995 — the two moments the new country chose to define itself by. She created the title role in Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu, the first opera composed in an African language, and spent her career building a performed archive of South African classical and traditional music that had never been gathered before. She died on 28 January 2021.
She sang at Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994 and at the Rugby World Cup final in 1995 — the two moments the new country chose to define itself by. She created the title role in Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu, the first opera composed in an African language, and spent her career building a performed archive of South African classical and traditional music that had never been gathered before. She died on 28 January 2021.
- Wikipedia — Sibongile Khumalo
- The Conversation — Sibongile Khumalo, the transformative singer who built an archive of South African classics
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