Thabsie has had what you would call a stellar two years.
A rising star on the music scene before the pandemic, she emerged as a bona fide big-time influencer after the hiatus. Where many felt stalled in their lives and careers and took to their pyjamas, Thabsie took to her social media and killed it.
She proposes lunch at Glenda’s in Hyde Park and it feels absolutely spot on. Glenda’s is like a hothouse flower of a restaurant; everything Glenda Lederle puts her hand to is styled to perfection. From the mammoth seasonal dahlias to the blooming wallpaper and pink India Mahdavi slipper chairs, this is an environment to build a dream on — a charmed wonderworld that's like a parallel universe, just like Instagram.
Thabsie was born and bred in Somerset West. “I am a small-town girl, my parents were super nomadic. They moved my three sisters and me around a lot. My mother worked for Eskom.”
We joke about how this is not something you want to admit to in these days of load-shedding.
She went to Helderberg School “but I wanted to spread my wings and moved to Joburg to go to UJ where I studied for my BCom in economics and econometrics. I am such a realist, but the music kept calling so I did choir and music competitions and I was a backing vocalist for all my friends, and by word of mouth I started singing for Khuli Chana, Proverb, Donald.
“When I graduated I started working for Absa Capital, but I would sit at my desk and get so sad thinking that if I don’t follow my dreams I am going to regret it.”
In December 2016 she took the plunge and resigned, and a month later she got got the call from Kwesta.
“He was releasing the song Ngiyaz’fela Ngawe which we had made two years earlier and it became the biggest love ballad of 2017. The rest is history. I thought, this is my opportunity. I decided to release my first single, African Queen, then my album and in 2019 I released Finally — we flew all the way to Ethiopia to shoot the video, it was so beautiful. We used a completely Ethiopian team, it was really fun.”
“Then 2020 Covid came and the music landscape was really altered. I took a bit of a break. That is when I turned to social media. I was on 200,000 followers when Covid started and in that first lockdown I gained 500,000 followers. I thought, every morning I am going to create. I was taking pictures, I don’t even know how I was doing it.”
We are tucking into salt and pepper calamari for Thabsie and avo toast for me and sharing a bowl of Parmesan-dusted chips from heaven.
“Music has been a very weird journey for me. The moment Covid hit amapiano took over. I am an R&B singer, and Afro pop — I have been so scared to either explore that or release my own style of music. I have been toying with the idea — do I hop onto amapiano?
“If you are not doing that your music is falling on deaf ears, but am I selling my soul? Now I am back and I have decided to still do my thing, what people know Thabsie for, and not be intimidated by this amazing genre that I love but is not organic or authentic to me. I have worked on a very nice R&B project and I will be releasing that shortly.”
Most girls seem super perfect, like they have all their stuff in order, which I know is not always the case
I wonder about the pressures of being a full-time influencer and how she juggles the responsibility of presenting an image to 1.2-million followers.
“I don’t feel compelled to be anything I wasn’t before. I haven’t changed who I am. I try to be as open and honest as I can possibly be on social media. But I have a sense of responsibility, so many young people are looking up to me. Young girls are looking, are listening, watching me.”
Is this influencer culture a fiction? “Yes, people seem to be perfect, but it is a good thing to aspire to, sometimes it's unrealistic, influencers show so much of their life … Every single beat of your day. Most girls seem super perfect, like they have all their stuff in order, which I know is not always the case. But we do try and show discipline, consistency, hard work, and honesty. All those things culminate into something bigger — and it actually equates to a better life.
“I grew up not having a lot, I knew what it was to struggle — we are the generation that does a little better. I don’t think people that have should feel bad for having, if you worked hard for it. But we should not neglect people in need. I am a young black girl, my parents did not have much at all but I represent what it means to work super hard, and be super focused.”
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