Mahotella Queens

The Mahotella Queens is a South African female group established in 1964. The group is one of the most prominent specialising in mbaqanga, a style born in the recording studios of 1960s South Africa and the first genre in the country to utilise fully electric rhythm accompaniment. The Queens developed an upbeat and distinct identity which combined multi-part girl group harmonies with energetic stage choreography, the baritone male vocals of Simon 'Mahlathini' Nkabinde and intense backup from the Makgona Tsohle Band, offering listeners happy respite during the oppressive era of apartheid. The original line-up of the Queens usually revolved around five singers fronted by popular soprano Hilda Tloubatla, but its membership evolved significantly into the 1970s and 1980s. A successful tour of France in 1987 comprising three of the original Queens – Tloubatla, Nobesuthu Mbadu and Mildred Mangxola – paved the way for an international touring career that has lasted across four decades, in spite of the deaths of Mahlathini and several Makgona Tsohle Band members. Since 2017, the line-up of the Mahotella Queens has consisted of Tloubatla, Amanda Nkosi and Nonku Maseko. Rupert Bopape, a renowned talent scout and businessman, joined Gallo Africa in 1964 with the instruction to form a new ‘black music’ subsidiary, later named Mavuthela Music. His first group was a revolving line-up of female session singers that would record under various pseudonyms to compete with established girl groups such as the Sweet Sixteens and the Dark City Sisters and featuring Bopape’s ‘discovery’ Simon ‘Mahlathini’ Nkabinde as a male soloist and backed by a house band later christened Makgona Tsohle. Several of the new group’s 78rpms were issued as the Mahotella Queens, which became the most recognisable to listeners. Their sound developed heavily on mbaqanga, a type of upbeat jive music that fused traditional African rhythms with modern electric instrumentation, as well as contrasting up-tempo female harmony with powerful male bass vocal. Mahlathini became well known in his own right as a groaner, the name given to male lead singers with particularly deep and "groaning" vocals. The line-up of the Queens was drawn from a pool of vocalists that included Hilda Tloubatla, Nunu Maseko, Ethel Mngomezulu, Windy Sibeko, Juliet Mazamisa, Mildred Mangxola, Nobesuthu Mbadu and Mary Rabotapi (formerly of vocal group The Skylarks). After a series of early hit singles, there was a significant demand for live appearances. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens devised a boisterous stage act combining traditional Zulu and Xhosa dance with popular American jive choreography. The demand saw the group ensconced in nationwide tours that lasted several weeks or months, with additional visits to Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, the then-Rhodesia, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. They also continued to record prolifically during this time. Among their most successful singles were "Izinyoni", "Thoko", "Ashikinisi" (or "Jive Motella"), "Umoya", "Pitsa Tse Kgolo" (better known as "Melodi Ya Lla"), "Sithunyiwe", "Mahlare", "Lilizela" and "Jive Makhona". The group’s take on mbaqanga became increasingly referred to as "mgqashiyo" during the 1960s and was emulated by a host of rival producers and artists. By the early 1970s, the group was one of black South Africa’s most popular and profitable musical attractions. In 1972, Mahlathini and some of the Mahotella Queens resigned from Gallo over a dispute with Rupert Bopape about unfair treatment. They spent the rest of the decade recording for competing labels and performing on stage as ‘Mahlathini and the Queens’. In order to keep the Mahotella Queens brand alive, Bopape recruited new singers to replace them and by the late 1970s the group had settled on a nucleus that included groaner Robert 'Mbazo' Mkhize, soprano Emily Zwane, Beatrice Ngcobo, Thandi Radebe, Thandi Nkosi and Caroline Kapentar. Many of these members had been promoted from junior Mavuthela groups such as the Mthunzini Girls and Izintombi Zomoya. Also during this period, Bopape began to farm out production duties to Makgona Tsohle Band members including West Nkosi, who produced the first commercial recordings by Zulu choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Rhodesia-based The Green Arrows. The Mahotella Queens maintained their popularity through most of the 1970s despite the change in faces, boosted by the support of Abafana baseQhudeni, a newly formed all-male mbaqanga vocal group. One of their most enduring hits was the 1973 single "Umculo Kawupheli" ("The music never ends"), the lyrics of which celebrate music as a source of joy and healing and which sold 25,000 copies, earning a gold disc. However, in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, the popularity of mbaqanga and other local music genres began to wane in favour of American-influenced soul and disco. Rupert Bopape began to pull out of day-to-day operations at Mavuthela after 1977, forcing the Makgona Tsohle Band to retire from live performing and take over production duties. West Nkosi continued to oversee Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s now-hugely lucrative recording career as well as producing a slew of new soul and disco-inspired acts like Mpharanyana and The Cannibals and Patience Africa. Guitarist Marks Mankwane took charge of the Mahotella Queens as its producer, arranger and manager, in addition to producing artists Abafana baseQhudeni, Walter Dlamini, Olga Mvicane and Joyce Thabe. The Beggers provided instrumental backup for the Queens and other Mankwane-produced artists. Mankwane produced several popular Queens albums in the early 1980s including Tsamaya Moratuoa, Thatha Izimpahla Zakho, Ezesimanje, Tsa Lebowa and Khwatha O Mone. To compete with the popular Abafana baseQhudeni, West Nkosi formed a rival male group, Amaswazi Emvelo, which was to become one of South Africa’s most successful mbaqanga groups of the 1980s. The introduction of African-language television in 1982 helped to create a brief nostalgia boom. The Makgona Tsohle Band reunited to star in a musical sitcom titled Mathaka (The guys) in 1983. Off the back of the show’s success, Mankwane reunited five of the original Mahotella Queens with groaner Mahlathini to create the supergroup Mahlathini Nezintombi Zomgqashiyo. The project produced at least three albums and a couple of nationwide tours until disbanding in 1984 after the abrupt cancellation of Mathaka. Mankwane continued to release material under the Mahotella Queens name thereafter, while Mahlathini joined forces with Amaswazi Emvelo to create several highly successful collaborative albums. During the 1980s, several global music projects featuring the work of mbaqanga musicians helped the genre breakthrough into the international market. These included Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock (1983), Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s Zulu Rock (1984), the compilation The Indestructible Beat of Soweto (1985), Paul Simon's Graceland (1986) and Harry Belafonte’s Paradise in Gazankulu (1988). Hoping to build on the recent success experienced by Ladysmith Black Mambazo through their work in the Graceland project, West Nkosi was able to secure an appearance at a French music festival for Mahlathini, Amaswazi Emvelo and the Makgona Tsohle Band in March 1987. The appearance was a major success, but promoters quickly convinced Nkosi to bring along the original Mahotella Queens, with whom Mahlathini and the Makgona Tsohle Band had appeared on several tracks on The Indestructible Beat of Soweto. Under Nkosi’s production, Mahlathini, three of the original Queens – Hilda Tloubatla, Nobesuthu Mbadu and Mildred Mangxola – and the Makgona Tsohle Band recorded a comeback album, Thokozile, followed by a full-length tour of Europe that was so well received that it was extended until the end of the year. From the late 1980s until the late 1990s, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens were busy with an endless stream of tours of the United States, Canada, the UK, France,