BY SIPHOSETHU MABUZA
MANZINI– Nelly Noll’s Mkhatshwa has found a new audience on YouTube, with the music video nearing 3 000 views just a day after its release.
The numbers come more than a year after Noll first released the song in 2025, giving the track a second life through a visual story that brings its themes of identity, family and heritage to the screen.
Mkhatshwa is closely tied to Noll’s own story. The singer has previously described the song as a tribute to her family name and her roots, referring to it as a “love letter” to the Mkhatshwa name.
Growing up in Siteki, Noll was exposed to Swati traditions, storytelling and rhythms that would later influence her music. Those influences are heard in Mkhatshwa, which blends Afro-soul, Afro-house and Swazi soul with R&B elements. But the song was not initially expected to sound the way it does today.
Noll previously explained that she had intended to work with a different beat, but a misunderstanding with her producer resulted in another production. Instead of abandoning the track, she worked with what she had and began building the song around the melody and feeling of the new sound.
Guitarist Ayanda Dlamini also contributed to the recording, adding live guitar to the production. For Noll, however, the meaning of Mkhatshwa extends beyond her own surname. She has said she wanted the song to encourage listeners to think about their own backgrounds and the people and places that shaped them.
That message now has a visual counterpart. Released a day ago, the music video marks Noll’s first official music video and has already attracted close to 3 000 views on YouTube. The early response comes as the 2025 song enters a new phase, with the visuals giving audiences another way to engage with a track that has long been rooted in Noll’s sense of identity.
The release also raises a question for the artist: after allowing Mkhatshwa to live as an audio track for more than a year, what does she see differently now that its story can be watched as well as heard?
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(Courtesy Pic)
