Brenda Nokuzola Fassie left Cape Town for Soweto as a teenager in 1981 and, fronting Brenda and the Big Dudes, became a star of South Africa's disco-inflected "bubblegum" scene with 1983's "Weekend Special." Dubbed the "Queen of African Pop" and "Madonna of the Townships," she carried that township-pop template through kwaito's 1990s rise and into the democratic era with anthems like "Vulindlela," and remains one of the most influential vocalists in South African popular music.

the sound in question

1997

VulindlelaBrenda Fassie