Artist

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is South Africa’s five-time GRAMMY Award-winning singing group founded in the early 1960s. A radio broadcast, in 1970, opened the door to a recording career that includes over seventy albums, earning 19 GRAMMY Award nominations and five GRAMMY Award wins, including their most recent album, Shaka Zulu Revisited for Best World Music Album. In the mid-1980s, American singer/songwriter Paul Simon famously incorporated the group's rich harmonies into the Graceland album, a landmark recording considered seminal in introducing South African music to mainstream audiences. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison he stated that Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s music was a powerful message of peace that he listened to while in jail. It was Mandela who called Ladysmith Black Mambazo “South Africa’s Cultural Ambassadors to the World.” The group sings from a traditional music style called isicathamiya (is-cot-a-ME-Ya), which developed in the mines of South Africa. The group has also recorded with Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Sarah McLachlan, Josh Groban, Emmylou Harris and many others. Ladysmith Black Mambazo carries a message of Peace, Love and Harmony to every theater they perform in. We hope you will join them as they spread their message.