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If you love the music of the late great Hugh Masekela – then this is one concert that you do not want to miss at Joburg Theatre!

In collaboration with The Hugh Masekela Heritage Foundation, a heart-warming celebration of Hugh Masekela’s theatrical music in an exclusive four-performance season will take place on The Mandela stage at Joburg Theatre, from Thursday, May 3rd to Sunday, May 6th.

I have two sets of tickets valued at R 600 each to giveaway to two lucky readers for the opening night, 20h00 show on Thursday 3rd of May!

A lot is known about South African music legend Hugh Masekela, but less about his affection and contribution to musical theatre in South Africa. His early years found him involved in the productions of the African Jazz and Variety road show and the internationally acclaimed King Kong – Africa’s first Jazz opera.

As we celebrate Africa and Worker’s month, this tribute will showcase some of his best known theatrical songs and compositions. It will feature contributions from some of his most loved collaborators and will shine a spotlight on South African talent. They will be joined by a select group of eminent musicians who worked with Bra Hugh, as well as his members of the most recent Masekela touring band.

Enter below and let me know what your favourite Hugh Masekela song is!

Competition closes 28th April and winners will be notified by email.

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33 Comments

Pam Gabriels April 17, 2018 at 6:39 am

My all time favourite song by Bra Hugh is “Send Me”. Would love to go and see this show so please send me!

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:20 am

    Send me, into the world I will go and praise Your name. The market theatre version is tops

Mosibudi Madidimalo April 17, 2018 at 8:25 am

Stimela has to be my favourite song from the Hope album .

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:22 am

    Sidl’ inyul’ enkomponi ah hey ngath’ uyabhayza wena bathi Stimela, hey sheshisa wena! Sihleli nje nge zinja

Silindile Buthelezi April 17, 2018 at 9:10 am

My favourite song by the Legend Bra Hugh is Stimela. I love, love it.

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:24 am

    And when they hear that choo-choo train, they always cuss… and they curse the coal train, the coal train that brought them to Johannesburg

Mangaliso Ngomane April 17, 2018 at 9:54 am

My favorite song… tough one. I love the whole of the 1993 album he recorded in Washington. I love the opening track Abangoma (the healers) it evokes so much spirituality. I also love Languta which made sense when I read his book and where he grew up and the migrant labourers sang it. It’s a pity I never got to see him perform live in his lifetime but I have all his CDs. I charmed a girl with the lyrics from Marketplace. It’s a song about a simple African love story in the rural Congo. How can I not mention Stimela (the coal train)? It’s the workers’ anthem that tells of the exploitation we still sometimes experience in the capitalist workplaces all to enrich others but at what cost to us and our own families. By the way May will also be my birthday month so I’m so stoked to see this. Please send me.

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:09 am

    There’s a track on the Black to the future album which isn’t a song at all, or rather it begins with him talking about being in exile and missing home, it becomes a one-line song (taken from another song of his umam’ uyajabula uma ngibuy’ ekhaya) but not before he says “it’s good to be back!”. I love his interpretation of some of his biggest songs that he did live at the Market Theatre particularly The boys doin it, Ashiko which is a tribute to Fela Kuti with whom he played in Nigeria, Thanayi (which features Thandiswa Mazwai on an earlier version), Khawuleza penned by Dorothy Masuku and is infact sung as a tribute to women of song and Ibala lami which reaffirms the black identity.

    Off of his 2012 album PLAYING @ WORK I love Soweto Blues lead by Phuthuma Tiso which he wrote for Miriam Makeba at the height of Apartheid. I also love Go look after mama which is very humuourous and traditional.

    Off of his final album ‘No borders’ I love, Shuffle & Bow, KwaZulu-Natal, One of these days, Don’t go lose it baby (where he raps lol, I heard him rap live in his acceptance speech of an MTV music award in 2016). I really could go on and on. A testament to how essential his entire repertoire is.

      Heather Hook April 30, 2018 at 8:58 am

      Congrats Mangaliso, I have sent you an email!

Tshegofatso April 17, 2018 at 11:35 am

My favorite Bra Hugh song is “Don’t Go Loose It Baby”.

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:34 am

    Every winners name is in the hall of fame and you’re a winner when you beat the game. New or old version?

Tshepang Monare April 17, 2018 at 11:36 am

Stimela that’s my old time song

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:33 am

    From all the hinterlands of southern and central Africa, this train carries young and old African men who are conscripted to come and work on contract in the gold and mineral mines of Johannesburg and its surrounding metropoli

Masedi Mabe April 17, 2018 at 11:53 am

Hugh Masekela – Marketplace
Oh what a classic. The song raised me.

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:10 am

    I see her floating lazily

Masedi Mabe April 17, 2018 at 11:58 am

Hugh Masekela – Grazing in the grass.
I’m so keen for this.

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:12 am

    Do you know I was once watching Top Gear (motoring show on BBC) back in the days of Jeremy Clarkson and I heard this song being used as a soundtrack in one of the segments, that’s how accomplished Bra Hugh was

Molebogeng Sikoe April 17, 2018 at 12:10 pm

Stimela – the long live at the makers theatre version

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:29 am

    Sixteen hours or more a day for almost no pay. Deep, deeeeeeep, deep down in the belly of the earth where they are digging and drilling for that shiny mighty evasive stone or when they dish that mish mash mush food into their iron plate with the iron shovel, or when they sit in their stinky, funky, filthy, flea-ridden barracks and hostels and they think about their loved ones…a sad sad song about the exploitation workers still face at the hands of capitalists

Melanie Burgin April 17, 2018 at 2:22 pm

Stimela,
As Bra Hugh grew up in Alex, I managed to get him to do a teenage motivational talk at the RiverPark Library. What an amazing Man. Wow.

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:14 am

    Wow, just wow. His music already says so much, I can’t imagine him speaking. Wow

Melanie Burgin April 17, 2018 at 2:23 pm

Favourite piece is Stimela,
As Bra Hugh grew up in Alex, I managed to get him to do a teenage motivational talk at the River Park Library. What an amazing Man. Wow.

Tshepiso Maleswena April 17, 2018 at 4:13 pm

His Magnum Opus-Stimela and my favourite version of the song is the one he performed live at the Market Theatre

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:18 am

    O man. And true to Bra Hugh’s style there are times he had the crowd in stitches and he had to remind them, ‘it’s not a joke’ Stimela is actually a more morose song.

Koena Matlou April 17, 2018 at 9:44 pm

It is hard to come up with my favourite song by Bro Hugh because all his songs are awesome…..But in this case i will have to go with “Ibala lami”

    Mangaliso Ngomane April 18, 2018 at 2:14 am

    This brown colour is a winner

Sandra April 18, 2018 at 11:32 am

Stimela it reminds me of my late grandfather who fought in ww2 and send me that one gives me goosebumps

Sentle Sauli April 18, 2018 at 1:24 pm

Stimela is my all time favourite it’s like a soundtrack to my child hood

Tshepi Maesela April 18, 2018 at 6:01 pm

Favorite definitely Stimela

    Heather Hook April 30, 2018 at 8:38 am

    Congrats Tshepi – I have sent you an email!

Wandile Shabangu April 19, 2018 at 10:11 am

I see her floating lazy

Phistos April 23, 2018 at 4:07 pm

Stimela is my favourite song and I can’t wait to hear it again

Mangaliso Ngomane April 27, 2018 at 3:38 pm

Doin it doin it doin it. That’s the song that speaks to me this week from that colossus of the great South African songbook leading up to Afrika month. Bra Hugh was deliberate in affirming his Africaness hence he began anthropology work which will hopefully be continued by the Hugh Masekela Foundation hence songs like Ibala lami on his album The Revival and his final album’s title ‘No borders’.

‘The Boyz doin it’ is a song about a man with the unbroken spirit of a boy from Afrika going to these various places around the world blowing his horn spreading love all around.

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