Margaret Singana - The love you need
555 views · Published 20 September 2018 · 3:53 · Indexed 23 September 2026
Channel: keurspel (Leon Rossouw) · 2018 · Music
South African artist, born Margaret Nomvula M'cingana in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape on 1 January 1938, was affectionately known to her fans as “Lady Africa”. In the 1950s she moved to Johannesburg where she worked as a domestic servant. Her employers were so impressed with her singing while cleaning that they recorded her voice and sent the tape to a record company. In 1964 the producers of the musical Sponono, written by Alan Paton, gave her a part as a chorus singer. In the 1970s she started performing with The Symbols and in 1972 made "Good Feelings" with the band. It reached #2 on the old LM Hit Parade. In 1973 she was cast as the lead singer in the musical, Ipi Tombi, and soon made herself famous with the song "Mama Tembu's Wedding". In 1977 her song "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Loved You)" became a hit. She had a stroke in 1980 and suffered from bad health for many years, but in 1986 made a comeback with the song "We Are Growing", the theme song from the television series Shaka Zulu. She received many awards over the years, including the 1976/1977 critics award from the British magazine, Music Week, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. She was married to jazz bassist Mongezi Velelo. She sadly died on 22 April 2000 in Soweto, after a long illness. In 2005 her work was remembered with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the South African Music Awards. This song is off the album "Jungle Money", a compilation of the best songs released by Satbel South Africa between 1973 and 1976. It was written by Patric van Blerk and Fransua Roos, and was first released on the album "Love Is The Power" in 1974.
