0657. Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Long before the (musical) boycott of South Africa was in effect and caused trouble for Paul Simon, Miriam Makeba was exiled by the racist/fascist regime for talking about how you've heard about apartheid, right), and then recording with people the local government didn't think you should record with (apartheid) affected her (seriously: her citizenship was revoked for speaking).
When she couldn't get home (to her mother's funeral, no less), she did what she could and recorded her (eponymous) debut album, starting a solo-carreer that would span about five decades and earn her the name Mama Afrika.
And it's easy to see why she got into people's record shelves,
cause her voice is pleasant, the songs are exotic enough to
entice, but not so alien that they're percieved as strange.
It's fascinationg hearing The Click Song, with its Xhosa
lyrics (and the original title of Qongqothwane) and in The
Naughty Little Flea her delivery is at its nicest.
Some tracks are plain silly, though, but whatevs, the rest
are pleasant listens.
