Botswana’s Bejoy Releases Debut Album
More and more talent in the music industry is mushrooming. One of the latest to join the booming industry is Bejoy, also known as Joyce Ben. Bejoy has released her first offering, Seanamarena, which she says has sold 10, 000 copies in South Africa in just two months of its release.
She says that it is an African album with lyrics in Setswana, Zulu and Shangaan, produced by Phumi Maduna, Condry Ziqubu and Harold Khoza. She also revealed that she helped compose some of the songs in her album.
Bejoy says the whole album is packed with hits including Izembe, Setoki, Bejoy, Seanamarena and Teza. Bejoy also says that she intends to go a long way in the industry and believes hard work and determination will see her through. She added that she is proud to be African, which is why she would include other African languages in her lyrics for future albums. She further says that her stage performance is influenced by none other than her favourite divas Janet Jackson and Phumi Maduna.
The album was released by Condry Ziqubu Productions and distributed by Cool Spot.
Born in Gaborone in 1970, Bejoy started school in Kanye. Like most musicians, Bejoy says she started singing at school, at home and church. She grew up listening to her childhood stars of the 80s, Maduna, Rebecca Malope, Patricia Majalisa, Zizi Kongo, Condry Ziqubu, Brenda Fassie, and Mercy Pakela.
Bejoy, who worked as a hairdresser and a pharmacy assistant in Gaborone, says she moved to South Africa to study nursing and computer course. She says that she then became friends with the divas, Maduna, Malope, Majalisa and Fassie. “These ladies of song, like my friends back home, encouraged me to record an album but I felt I wanted to learn more about the industry and instead worked as a back-up singer, driver and secretary for many of them,” she says. She adds that she decided that 2007 would be the turning point - a year in which to try her luck and headed to the studio.
“And as luck would have it, all is well with me,” says Bejoy.
Source: Mmegi/The Reporter
