Singer-songwriter and producer Lungi Naidoo is inspiring the next generation through a special rendition of the South African national anthem, performed in collaboration with the Institute for Music and Indigenous Arts Development (IMAD) and the Khayelitsha Junior Choir. The rendition was released under Rainbow Nation Kids, a project founded by Naidoo. Over the past year, Rainbow Nation Kids has released Zulu Nursery Rhymes, in which Naidoo contributed to South African culture by collaborating with children from KwaZulu-Natal to create an album and corresponding sing-along lyric book.
The vision behind the project is to help bring music back to schools and educate children through the gift of music. This collaboration is followed by Mzansi Lullabies, a 15 track album featuring a mix of six traditional isiZulu children’s songs recorded as lullabies, as well as nine original lullabies written and produced by Lungi Naidoo and Ryan Sackanary. The project was inspired by Naidoo’s recent re-entry into motherhood with the birth of her twins.
The singer-songwriter, who hails from KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal, shares that starting a non-profit organisation had always been something she wanted to do early in her career. “Rainbow Nation Kids came about because I was pregnant last year, and everyone kept saying my children would have all the South African nationalities because I’m half Indian and half Zulu, and my husband is white,” she says. The idea to record nursery rhymes cam.
