Atlantis stars scoop international award
SCOOP: The band 4TheMusic, consisting of brothers PJ and Elton Frans and vocalist Jabu Magagula, received a top prize at the Akademia Awards held in Los Angeles.Photo: Supplied SCOOP: The band 4TheMusic, consisting of brothers PJ and Elton Frans and vocalist Jabu Magagula, received a top prize at the Akademia Awards held in Los Angeles.Photo: Supplied
An Atlantis band is making waves overseas, after scooping an international award with their song, called Mzanzi.
The trio, called 4TheMusic, won the Best World Beat prize last year, and travelled to Los Angeles last month to attend the gala ceremony of the Akademia Awards to receive their award.
Akademia is based in LA and is a platform for artists from all over the world to get their music recognised.
The vocal band, with their African-themed flavour, came together in 2009 when they met in Dubai.
The band consists of brothers PJ and Elton Frans from Atlantis, and female vocalist Jabu Magagula from Durban.
ACHIEVEMENT: PJ Frans. Photo: Supplied
“Winning this award is kinda like winning the best foreign film at the Oscars,” says PJ.
The band worked in Dubai in the UAE for 11 years, performing in several five-star hotels and at music festivals before embarking on producing their own album.
Elton plays the drums and PJ is on the keyboard, while Jabu is their lead singer.
“We performed at various venues in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and became popular over there over the years,” says PJ, who lamented the lack of local support.
“Here in South Africa, we don’t get recognition, even though we sent our music to local TV and radio stations.”
In Dubai, the band opened for top acts such as Billy Ocean, Boney M, The Wailers (Bob Marley’s band), Tony Hadley, Sister Sledge and Bjorn Again.
In 2016, they decided to write their own music and released two singles in Zulu, called Mzanzi and Sendile.
They then entered the Akademia Awards with their debut song Mzanzi, which has now been named Best World Beat.
REWARDED: Best World Beat. Photo: Supplied
“We are thrilled to have won this award, it pays so much recognition for the work we put in all these years,” says PJ.
“We hope this award will inspire young upcoming musicians and youth to go for their dreams and work extremely hard to achieve it. Nothing comes easy in life, but when you get rewards like this, it makes working so much sweeter.”
PJ described their song as a reflection of South Africa.
“We refer to South Africa as Mzansi, which is a slang word. The song is mixed Zulu and Xhosa and speaks about what’s happening in our country, for example corruption, but that change will come soon.”
Their music is available on YouTube and other digital platforms.