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Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent

ONE of the country’s most celebrated artistes, Sandra “Sandy” Ndebele is working on spreading her wings to the Southern Africa region.

Sandy, who rose to fame in the early 2000s when she was part of Iyasa, has matured over the years and is now a top musician in the country.

On Monday, she was in South Africa where she had an interview with DJ Sbu at Massiv Metro FM popularly known as the Voice of Tembisa. Speaking to Sbu, she said it was high time she diversifies and spreads her wings to neighbouring countries.

“The industry (music in Zimbabwe) is not so big like South Africa, but is growing so well. That’s why you see that a number of artistes end up coming here in search of greener pastures because the ground is big,” she said. 

As part of efforts to grow her brand regionally, Sandy recently collaborated with South African artiste Vukani on an Amapiano single titled Impilo. The single was played during the interview with the music video set to be dropped sometime next week.

Two years ago Sandy worked with Professor on the hit single Lizwile.

Always willing to try out new things, Sandy has diversified from her first song which was a love/hip hop song, to the afro pop traditional songs and now to the Amapiano genre, something which earned her respect from DJ Sbu.

The DJ, after sampling Impilo, said it was a good track. 

On the track, Sandy sings in Shona while Vukani sings in Ndebele as they detail the day to day characteristics of an ordinary person.

To hype up the single, Sandy said she will be having radio, television and show interviews in South Africa and Zimbabwe in the coming months.

“When I come back (to South Africa), I will make sure I have time so that I go around for interviews on radios and television as I promote the single. I hope we work on an album with Vukani,” chuckled the soft spoken Sandy.

Having been in the arts industry for 17 years, Sandy said she was inspired by DJ Sbu with the late Dr Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi moulding her to be a successful musician.

“My journey started in 2003. I was inspired by DJ Sbu who said even if things are hard, one should keep on pushing. The late Mtukudzi, when we first met, took me as his daughter as he also had a daughter called Sandra. So whenever we met, we bonded well and he told me to work hard so that if my talent can’t make ends meet, then my hard work should pay,” said Sandy. – @mthabisi_mthire.