New Female Vocalist To Replace The Soil’s Buhle Mda Announced
The wait is over and now, the female vocalist who will take over Mda’s singing duties during her sabbatical has been announced . Last month, the Soil lead female vocalist Buhle Mda announced that she will be taking a music hiatus from March to focus on ‘ancestral calling’. Mda took to Facebook with her The Soil band-members to break the news in a video clip.
Female vocalists were invited to #ExperienceTheSoil. Ten of the best were selected as finalists and The Soil announced the top ten vocalists last week (see the top 10 HERE) who had to audition live before the band. The winner was ultimately picked and her name is Theo Songstress Matshoba.
Interested vocalists were encouraged to visit The Soil’s Facebook page and submit their audition videos. 10 videos were then selected from this platform and 10 female vocalists were invited to audition live at The Native Rhythms Productions offices over the weekend.
After a full day of various performances and interaction with the band, 20-year-old Theo Matshoba from Dobsonville, Soweto got the ultimate prize. “More than anything, I am shocked because the ladies there were really talented. Buhle’s shoes are really huge to fill but I am not trying to be her, I just want to make her and the group proud”, said Theo Matshoba.
All the vocalists were given an opportunity to sing 2 songs of their choice from The Soil and each got an opportunity to perform with Phindo & Ntshika, the group’s current members. Judging criteria included synergy with the group and own persona that will complement the group image, something that Theo excelled in.
The second-year Psychology student at University of Johannesburg is ready for the journey ahead and she’s happy to have taken the chance to trial for this.
Native Rhythms MDs, Velile&SiphoSithole said they would ensure that Theo still carries on with her studies and will co-ordinate performances with her school time table.
“Theo has an exceptional voice and we are extremely elated by the fact that she’ll now be part of a unit whose sole mandate is to continue sharing beautiful music with people, in all these amazing stages” said The Soil.
She will start rehearsing with the band as of this week and her first performance will be on 5th March 2016. Buhle will be present at most of these to guide her and give her some performance coaching.
The Multi-award winning group shared a video today showing their live performance featuring the winner. We watched the video and wow, we were super impressed. Theo Songstress Matshoba, shuts it down! We think that the Soil did a very good job and there’s no doubt that she will make Buhle Mda proud. Check out the video below and see the new female vocalist…..
(WATCH HERE)
