Sanelisiwe Twisha, better known as Moonchild Sanelly, breathes fire into every space she occupies.

This bold Xhosa woman, who was born and raised in Port Elizabeth, is the epitome of an unapologetic black woman and she oozes success.

She continues to transcend international barriers and now embarks on a tour of Europe with Afrikaans band Die Antwoord in August.

“I couldn’t escape music,” she tells me about her upbringing in a musical home. Her brother being a hip-hop producer and her mom being a jazz singer at her own jazz tavern, the house was always full of melodic entertainment.

“I started singing back in high school” she says.

Every weekend at her grandmother’s she would visit her cousins and their kwaito dance moves were unmatched. This evidently helped shape one aspect of her music

In Durban in 2006 she had her first gig. “The first time I performed was epic, I killed it,” she says.

Initially setting out to go to a radio station audition, Moonchild abandoned the lengthy queue and decided she wanted to sing on stage that day. From there, she ended up doing a weekend slot on Gagasi FM and poetry with artist King Siso.

Kwaito, jazz and hip-hop were genres that Moonchild could not escape from. These are the elements that exist in her music today. She defines her unique genre as future ghetto funk.

About her European tour with Die Antwoord, she says boldly: “I’m ready. My set will be an hour long and full of entertainment.”

She says that she is going to give the crowd everything from electro to gqom and not have a hit-based opening.

Main Image Credit: blacklightmag

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