Minicooper

South African singer, Thembi Tracy Ludlolo, popularly known by her stage name, Mini Cooper is proving that age is just a number. The 39-year-old mother of two, is bringing an energetic, lively and positive atmosphere to the stage. She spoke to Music in Africa about the journey to establishing her music career, the opposition she faced and the musical nudge that kept drawing her back to her calling.

Raised in Alexandra, Cooper found her true purpose in music. As a child, she sang in church, and harbours a core memory of drawing herself standing on a stage and performing to a large crowd of people. “I think that’s where the vision started.” Though life briefly pulled her away from music, she found her way back and officially recorded her EP in 2022.  “Music is my purpose. It’s the talent that God gave me.”

Juggling motherhood, a 9-5 and musical challenges.
Under the management of the studio that produced her first EP, Cooper faced the challenge of not having full creative control. “I wasn’t free or flexible. I couldn’t be myself,” she explains. Struggling under a recording studio that wasn’t aligned with her needs, and facing financial strain, put a pause to her career once more, but her love for music endured. “The urge and the thirst for music that I always had, I couldn’t let it go”

A friend, Patrick Godfrey, later introduced her to Tafula, a former member of Splash and her now producer, who not only gave her creative freedom but also her stage name: Mini Cooper. “He saw me and he saw how short I was,” she laughs when explaining his reasoning.

Currently balancing a 9-5 job as an online business assistant, a career in music and being a mom, Cooper has a tenacious mindset when it comes to juggling all her responsibilities. “It’s through grace that we’ve just been doing it,” she says. “I am a woman and it’s inherent within us as women.”

Her sound is a blend of disco, and deep-seeking storytelling, rooted in messages of purpose. Her lens of writing comes from looking at the world around her as well as observing her own life. For Cooper, a song is truly complete once she’s satisfied with it. “So long as I’m happy and I’m good with it, then I release it.”

Motives and ambitions
Cooper makes music to be connected with, not only to be danced to.“If I perform a healing song, I want my audience to connect with that and if it’s a happy song, then I need to see it in my audience,” Cooper explains. She uses her audience's reactions as an indicator of the connection that she’s making with them. 

Even as an emerging artist, Cooper understands the value of staying true to herself, and not being swayed by the trends in the industry. “I don’t want to follow the trends, I want to be myself and do my own thing.” 

A couple years from now, Cooper dreams...