Ladysmith Black Mambazo at San Sebastian Jazz Festival at Plaza De La Trinidad (trinity Square)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is Africa’s vocal group par excellence. We associate their music with the struggle against apartheid and its abolition, and with the freedom and arrival to power of Nelson Mandela. In fact, today most people in the world unconsciously instantly connect their songs to Africa in general and South Africa in particular.

The group was created with the name of Ezimnyam in 1960, initially made up of the siblings and cousins of Joseph Shabalala, its founder and leader. In 1964 Shabalala had several dreams in which he heard specific music and harmonies, always in the isicathamiya traditional style. Shabalala, who continued to perform until 2008 and died in 2020, conveyed the sounds of his dreams to the group, who soon started to enjoy success and win most of the competitions they entered....

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Ladysmith Black Mambazo is Africa’s vocal group par excellence. We associate their music with the struggle against apartheid and its abolition, and with the freedom and arrival to power of Nelson Mandela. In fact, today most people in the world unconsciously instantly connect their songs to Africa in general and South Africa in particular.

The group was created with the name of Ezimnyam in 1960, initially made up of the siblings and cousins of Joseph Shabalala, its founder and leader. In 1964 Shabalala had several dreams in which he heard specific music and harmonies, always in the isicathamiya traditional style. Shabalala, who continued to perform until 2008 and died in 2020, conveyed the sounds of his dreams to the group, who soon started to enjoy success and win most of the competitions they entered.

Isicathamiya traditional music, of Zulu origin, was born in the mines of South Africa, where the black workers who were taken to work far from home by train would dance and sing a cappella on their day off. The miners later took those songs to their homes, where it started to spread to towns and cities.

Thanks to their success in those competitions, they recorded their first album, Amabutho (1973), the first of the more than 50 they would go on to make, many of them racking up enormous sales figures.

Their leap to international fame came with Paul Simon and the 16 million copies sold of his album, Graceland (1986). The participation of Ladysmith Black Mambazo in that album made their name a household phenomenon and saw them tour all over the world.

From then on Ladysmith Black Mambazo went on to enjoy countless stellar moments: they have won 5 Grammys, performed when Nelson Mandela received his Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, have featured on soundtracks, sold millions of albums, performed on Broadway, starred in documentaries, taken their music to the biggest stages and have worked with artists including Stevie Wonder, Zap Mama, Sarah McLachlan, Melissa Etheridge, Joe McBride, Natalie Merchant, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal, Hugh Masekela, Mavis Staples and Pete Seeger.

Sixty-two years after its birth, Ladysmith Black Mambazo maintains its place as Africa’s leading vocal group and continues to give concerts all over the world. Their mission is to spread their music, keep their culture alive and entertain with their energetic, uplifting songs, always displaying tight harmonies and finely polished voices.
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After Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Joss Stone will perform in the same venue. The same ticket gives you the right to see both concerts.

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