Pretty, inspirational, even naughty: Judith Sephuma’s One Word is so many different things
|||BY HELEN HERIMBI
All Judith Sephuma heard was shouting.
“I was in my house and all of a sudden, I just heard people scream outside,” she tells me. “Then I found out that my album had won the Sama (South African Music Award).”
Her sixth studio album, One Word, took home the award for Best Adult Contemporary Album. But Sephuma was not at the ceremony in Durban to celebrate.
“I had such mixed emotions because I had just buried my mom,” she shares, “so it was ?a bittersweet moment.”But when I talk to the multiple award-winning songstress, she is in high spirits. Joy, which was also the first single off One Word, is the perfect way to describe her disposition.
“I realised that there is a difference between joy and happiness,” she says of the song and her mood.
“Happiness is short-lived,” she explains. “I’ve always been hungry for happiness which is why, maybe, you can go back to feeling sad again. But there is joy. You have to know what to tap into. The joy can be about a person or God. It’s ambiguous. The world will pull you left, right and centre, but when you have joy, you will always be rooted. So we need to seek that joy.”
With this album, Sephuma followed her bliss. She says: “I wanted to bring a different element to what I think music is. If you’re a singer and a versatile singer, it’s important for you to show that off.”
That includes her insistence on singing in Lingala (on Belinda and Mbote) and Portuguese (on Guti).“That’s a gift I love to show off,” Sephuma says of the languages.
“I don’t like to be limited. I love Belinda because the songwriter brought me six songs and that was the one that really stood out for me. It’s a song that celebrates women. It’s another Mme Motswadi (another of Sephuma’s hits) and is in line with who I am and what my music is: inspirational and life-changing.”
On One Word, Sephuma also got to try out genres and subject matter she isn’t typically known for. A song called Try is a pretty reggae number that features Buffalo Soulja and Satisfy sees Sephuma singing about knocking boots. About the latter, Sephuma giggles then says: “It’s definitely a sexual song. That was the whole idea. We all have a part of us where we want to be sensual. I did it in a classy way, though. Even if a young girl sings it, she can sing it and not feel naked. I love performing that song. People are naughty so when I perform it, you can see that look on their faces.”
With two live albums and now six studio albums under her belt, Sephuma plans to push her creativity yet again. She is working on an unplugged African jazz album.
“I want to show my voice off more, but in a beautiful way,” she tells me. “I’m taking my time with it, but it will be released next year. That’s what maturity is about: being able to do other things with your talent without losing your identity or leaving your fans behind.”
Judith Sephuma’s One Word album is in stores.