Multi-award winning singer, songwriter and performer, Amanda Black, has come a long way since her multi-platinum debut Amazulu found a place in the hearts of a nation. Today Amanda Black announces her new label Afro Rockstar and partnership with Sony Music which will see the release of her powerful new single, Thandwa Ndim on Friday 01 February.
Amanda Black’s much-anticipated single Thandwa Ndim is charged with the heartfelt emotion and soulfulness you fell in love with on her debut album. The instantly captivating lyrics and melody of Thandwa Ndim also highlight the creative growth that Amanda Black has experienced since Amazulu catapulted her onto the national stage - and earned a slew of awards and accolades for the Eastern Cape artist.
“I want ‘Thandwa Ndim’ to bring strength and courage to women who feel that they are trapped in toxic situations,” says Amanda Black of a song that she wrote after seeing a news report of yet another South African woman killed by her partner. “I want these women to understand that they are not alone and that they are truly loved.”
Thandwa Ndim sees Amanda Black using her radiantly expressive voice to call on women to encircle, with non-judgemental love, those struggling to leave an abusive relationship. In this call to action, she’s unmistakably championing women’s empowerment that is built on empathising with those who are struggling to extract themselves from complex situations.
“You can never have unity without compassion and empathy,” Amanda Black stresses. “My wish for this song is that it makes people stop and think more deeply about the lives of other women. We live in such a fragmented world, one in which our sense of community is broken. But I believe that we must begin to feel again if we are to join the circle of love that women need to be enveloped in, if they are to leave.”
Like many Xhosa expressions and words Thandwa Ndim has two meanings, and Amanda Black herself is taking strength from the unintended double message of the song. As she puts it: “Thandwa Ndim means you will be loved by me but it also means I will be loved by me. Amazingly, the song’s relevance to my own situation only became clear to me after people close to me heard it and pointed out that it could also be an expression of love for myself – the self-love that I really needed following challenges I experienced in life – the self-love I came to recognise within me as a strength to take myself seriously and forge ahead when times were tough”.
Once more working with producer Christer Kobedi, Amanda Black describes her new work as significantly furthering her long-held desire to use music to “change the world and heal people”. “It’s why I’ve wanted to make music since I was a child,”she says.
Indeed Amanda Black’s single Thandwa Ndim sees her articulating that journey towards her own evolution as an artist that is constantly growing and looking for ways to give back to others through the powerful medium of song.
Amanda Black’s single Thandwa Ndim becomes available across all streaming and download platforms from 01 February 2019.
