From Hammarsdale with love

Detailed summary

From a school choir in KwaZulu-Natal to sharing stages with Doja Cat at Coachella, a cappella quintet The Joy take their isicathamiya harmonies global as they…

The Joy started as a school choir in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal singing a cappella, and blending IsiZulu harmonies to heavenly planes. For the five members —Ntokozo “Pastor” Magcaba, Melokuhle “Duzie” Mkhungo, Sphelele “Guduza” Hlophe, Phelelani “Sthombe” Sithole and Sanele “Marcus” Ngcobo — the only thing that’s changed is the size of the room.

I catch all five of them on a video call from KwaZulu-Natal, where the internet is playing hard to get. Their answers are short and polite, and they would clearly rather sing than explain. But the CV does plenty of talking for them.

That sound grows out of isicathamiya, the IsiZulu a cappella style whose name comes from the word for walking softly, and mbube, its louder cousin. It’s tight, stacked harmony, five voices moving as one. It also turns out to travel well.

In November 2022 they were at the Hammersmith Apollo in London for Jools Holland’s birthday bash. A month later they were on The Jennifer Hudson Show and Hudson has since called them her “favourite band” and invited them onto her Christmas album, The Gift of Love. Alicia Keys and Sam Smith are fans too. Keys, according to The National, once told Duzie not to lose the “grit” in his lead vocals.

Sthombe is the first to admit he had no idea what he was walking into. The invitation came through management and Doja Cat’s team wanted a collaboration and a spot on her stage.

“I didn’t know about Coachella, and I was not aware who Doja Cat was,” he says. “So I was asking my brothers: ‘Hey guys, who is Doja Cat?’ And one of our brothers, Duzie, told us who Doja Cat is. Then we were so surprised to get an invite from a big person like her.”

Duzie, it turns out, was the band’s pop-culture desk. They flew from South Africa to Los Angeles, rehearsed with her for two weeks, and walked on to one of the biggest stages in the world. She put three of their songs on her album Scarlet, so the introduction clearly took.

A little, says Marcus. “It was scary, but not that much because we’re…

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