Wilson Center announces Ladysmith Black Mambazo for their only Milwaukee performance this concert season
On Saturday, February 22, 2025, the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts (Wilson Center) will host a performance with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Called by the late President Nelson Mandela “South Africa’s Cultural Ambassadors to the World,” the all-male choral group came to international prominence after singing with Paul Simon on his smash hit 1986 album Graceland. They have since won multiple awards, including five Grammy Awards the fifth of which they dedicated to the late former South African President Nelson Mandela.
The mission of the group is to bring peace and harmony to the world.
Ticket information
Tickets for the performance can be found at www.wilson-center.com or by calling 262-781-9520.
The box office is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 2 hours prior to any performance.
The Wilson Center is located 20 minutes from downtown Milwaukee, at 3270 Mitchell Park Drive, Brookfield, WI 53045 and offers free and accessible parking.
About Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Let us tell you an impossible to believe, yet true story. Once upon a time there was a teenage boy working on his family farm in apartheid South Africa. The year was 1960. This boy loved to sing, in fact he loved to sing so much that he allowed himself an impossible dream. In his dream he would create a group of singers, from his family members, to sing traditional South African songs. His group would perform all over South Africa and they would become the greatest music group his country would ever know. How could such a dream come to a young farm boy in a country rife with hardship, violence and trouble? Well, Joseph Shabalala was this young farm boy and his dream would become Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
The year 2025 marks the 65th anniversary of Joseph Shabalala forming Ladysmith Black Mambazo. His group would not only conquer all of South Africa, but would become a worldwide phenomenon, winning 5 Grammy Awards, and receiving 19 Grammy Award nominations, than any World Music group in the history of recorded music.
During the dark years of South African Apartheid, Ladysmith Black Mambazo followed a path of peaceful protest through songs of hope and love. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he said that Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s music was a powerful message of peace that he listened to while in jail. When Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, he asked the group to join him at the ceremony. It was Mandela who called Ladysmith Black Mambazo “South Africa’s Cultural Ambassadors to the World.”
The group sings a traditional music style called isicathamiya (is-cot-a-meeya), which developed in the mines of South Africa. It was there that black workers were taken to work far away from their homes and families. Poorly housed and paid, the mine workers would entertain themselves, after a sixday work week, by singing songs into the wee hours on Saturday night and Sunday. When the miners returned to their homes, this musical tradition returned with them.
In the mid-1980s, American singer/songwriter Paul Simon famously visited South Africa and incorporated the group’s rich harmonies into his renowned Graceland album – a landmark recording considered seminal in introducing World Music to mainstream audiences. This brought the group to the attention of music lovers all over the world, the beginning of a global musical career that shows no sign of ending.
After leading his group for over 50 years and approaching his 75 birthday, Joseph Shabalala retired in 2014, handing the leadership to his three sons, Thulani, Sibongiseni and Thamsanqa Shabalala. Having joined their father’s group in 1993, their many years of training had prepared them in ways no others could be trained. Now, carrying their father’s dream into the future, the Shabalala Family continues the group’s success for the world to hear.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is Thulani Shabalala, Sibongiseni Shabalala, Thamsanqa Shabalala, Msizi Shabalala, Albert Mazibuko, Abednego Mazibuko, Mfanafuthi Dlamini, Pius Shezi and Sabelo Mthembu.
