When she was a girl, Zandile Mzazi loved to sing. She tried to sing along with stars like Whitney Houston. She did not know her love of singing was the first step towards an opera career.
Mzazi had a good voice from a very young age. She says she was a “skinny little girl” when she won the lead role in a school musical.
Mzazi got her professional start singing religious music called oratorio. The music is like opera, but the music has religious themes. Handel’s “Messiah” is a well-known example of oratorio.
She first heard that kind of music from her aunt. And just like when she listened to pop music, she could sing along with Handel’s composition.
As a teenager, she heard a South African opera singer on television. She started to sing along. That is how she discovered opera. One thing she likes about opera, she said, is its “sadness and drama.”
Last July, she went to Europe for a voice competition. Mzazi came in first out of 80 singers from around the world.
Now Mzazi is planning to go to Europe to continue her career.
