Season 4 of SA’s Got Talent premiered on e.tv on Thursday night (29th) with a new crowd of wannabes doing their thang. Shado Twala, Ian von Memerty and Kabelo Mabalane were all back as judges, with Tats Nkonzo who returned to host.
All of them always have so much to say about the up-and-coming acts on the show but how do they feel about already established South African talent? In their eyes, who’s
the most talented South African?
I asked them. Here’s what they had to say ...
Bouga Luv:
"I’d say Khuli Chana. I really enjoy his interpretation of the hip hop genre. He’s an all round class act guy - his lyrical prowess is something of note. Definitely AKA too, for the reasons I mention Khuli.
Reason. It’s funny because they’re all hip hop acts but they’ve really impacted on me in a big way. They’re really three special young men who are going very, very far."
Shado:
"We would need to put them into categories because each category has a … one of my favourite girls at the moment is Zanele Muholi who’s a photographer and takes the most amazing pictures. She’s defining and redefining her craft and taking it into lots of different dimensions.
I know people who are taking dance into different dimensions.
Botlhale, she took poetry and brought it to the fore because no-one had thought poetry was that fabulous ‘til she did."
Zanele
Zanele's photography, published in TIME.
Ian:
"That’s impossible to say … you can’t say who the most talented South African is because there are so many different genres so if you look at Zahara, she was undoubtedly the most extravagant discovery that we found last year but then we have Botlhale who’s an 11-year-old who can capture an entire nation’s heart with a speech or we can listen to Sbongile Khumalo - and we’re just dealing with music at the moment.
My favourite South African from out of space is Nataniël, my favourite icon would be - two people: Brenda Fassie who was absolutely mental and a genius entertainer, Johnny Clegg as a creator.
Art … are we looking at Tretchikoff or what about Credo Mutwa? The list just goes on and on."
The Dying Swan by Vladimir Tretchikoff.
Tats:
"My first thought is my wife. That’s because she’s the only South African I’ve spent the most time with. Other South Africans I’ll see for 30 minutes on screen or an hour on stage but her, I’ve seen her in action for close to five years now and I can honestly say that she’s the most talented South African that I know. We have a baby so she’s very talented in many, many,
many areas.
Tats' new baby.
Celeb baby name: Owohlukileyo.His wife's name: Tshegofatso.She’s gonna kill me for this! But I think my wife.
She’s a qualified doctor, an awesome mom, an even better wife. She’s very smart, she’s a writer, thinker, very in her head which is probably what keeps me chasing after her because I always want to know what she’s thinking.
And, she caught me … that’s a pretty big thing for anybody to do, never mind for five years. We were in the same wedding band for a mutual friend. She was a singer, I was a singer, I saw her and BOOM, I just wanted to go home with her and eventually I did."