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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
MULTI Award winning Afro Soul musician Berita Khumalo has the ideal remedy for the month of love as she has released a new track, Ngicel’ikiss a song that spreads love and happiness.

The love ballad is soulful and has a hip jazzy feel with the distinct Berita guitar strums all throughout the track. The track loosely translated means May I please have a kiss.

The Gold selling Berita said this year she wanted to start off with spreading love, peace and happiness ahead of February 14, Valentine’s Day.

“It’s a good playful song that encourages people to love each other and show each other affection. It’s the month of love and Valentine’s is coming up soon and this is a song that can cement love between couples,” said Berita.

The musician is now an independent artiste as she has her own studio and record label Assali Music as part of her evolving in the industry.

She said the song stretched her creativity as an artiste when she wrote it at her home studio in South Africa.

“This is a song that I’ve put a lot of creativity as I have a home studio so the process of coming up with a song starts off in the studio before it gets to any studio.

“Releasing a song independently has taught me a lot about the industry and I truly believe with the way the game has changed, you really need to understand it to keep making music that people like,” said Berita.

The Thandolwethu hit-maker said she was inspired by her paternal and maternal grandmothers’ entrepreneurial skills for her to set up her own music company.

“Assali Music is my company; it’s named after my two grandmothers. Assa is after my maternal grandmother who I knew as an entrepreneur from when I was young and I used to go to the market and that’s where she would sell seedlings. Lillian was my grandmother from my father’s side who passed away before I was born. She worked as a maid and in her spare time would sew clothes and sell them,” said Berita.

She said she is working on her fourth album.

Berita has three, albums Conquering Spirit (2012), Songs of Empowerment (2014) and Berita (2017).

She has worked with two musical legends Oliver Mtukudzi and High Masekela on one song, Mwana Wamai.