AfricaIs aCountry

Alicia Keys fails Brenda Fassie

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Alicia Keys fails Brenda Fassie

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9H1Rgx5VVU&w=600&h=373&rel=0]

I am catching up over the next few days. Lots to blog. (Too much football means I stop thinking about anything else, but I’ll try.)

I know there’s some love for Alicia Keys on this blog: But was it only me or did she sound out of tune and out of sorts when covering the late Brenda Fassie’s single “Too Late for Mama” with South African band BLK JKS at the pre-World Cup concert two weeks ago?

BTW, I only saw the performance on the net since both the public broadcaster in South Africa as well as ABC here in the US apparently decided not to show the collaboration between Ms Keys and  BLK JKS. (Separately during Shakira’s performance Zolani Mahola, who has a verse on the song, could only be heard and not seen.)

If you can’t bear Ms Keys, there’s always the original complete with cheezy video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC-JqKc1mx4&600&h=373&rel=0]

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Reading List: Barbara Boswell

While editing a collection of the writings of South African feminist Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell found inspiration in texts that reflected Ngcobo’s sense that writing is an exercise of freedom.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

An annual awakening

In the 1980s, the South African arts collective Vakalisa Art Associates reclaimed time as a tool of social control through their subversive calendars.

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.