Did you know?
Brenda Fassie was born in Langa, and her first hit record came out in 1983.
Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was born in Langa, Cape Town, on 3 November 1964. Her first recording, "Weekend Special" with Brenda and the Big Dudes, came out in 1983 and South African History Online calls it the fastest-selling record of its time.
The story
Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was born in Langa on 3 November 1964 and left Cape Town for Johannesburg as a teenager to sing. She worked with the trio Joy, then formed Brenda and the Big Dudes, and her first recording, the 1983 single "Weekend Special", is described by South African History Online as the fastest-selling record of its time. The group toured the United States, Britain, Europe, Australia and Brazil. She spent the next two decades as the loudest and most argued-about pop star in the country, adored and criticised in roughly equal measure. She died on 9 May 2004, aged 39. Cape Town does not always claim her, because her career was made in Johannesburg, but Langa is where she started, and the city has a long habit of exporting its singers north.
People Langa 1964–2004 South Africa-wide
Source: South African History Online: Brenda Nokuzola Fassie · Wikipedia: Brenda Fassie