Letta Mbulu

Letta Mbulu: The Soweto Voice That Took Over Hollywood

Letta Mbulu didn’t just leave South Africa — she took the country’s soul with her. Born in Soweto in 1942, she was already on tour as a teen with the hit musical King Kong. When apartheid shut doors at home, she opened bigger ones in the US, landing in New York in 1964 and instantly linking up with fellow SA powerhouses like Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa.

America wasn’t ready, but she arrived anyway — and made it impossible to ignore her. Letta became a go-to jazz voice, working with Cannonball Adderley, David Axelrod and Harry Belafonte. Meanwhile, her own albums dropped across iconic labels: Capitol (Letta Mbulu Sings, Free Soul), Chisa (Letta), Fantasy (Naturally) and A&M (There’s Music in the Air, Letta). Each one carried that unmistakable Letta glow — part jazz, part folk, part global groove.

Hollywood heard it too. Her voice sneaks through classics like Roots, A Warm December and The Color Purple. And yes — that famous Swahili chant on Michael Jackson’s “Liberian Girl”? That’s Letta. Even Quincy Jones called her “the roots lady,” because her voice feels like home, history and hope at the same time.

She didn’t stop at music. Letta co-founded the South African Artists for Unity in 1986, keeping exiled creators connected and visible. Awards followed — the SAMAs, the Order of Ikhamanga, Mzantsi Jazz honours — but the real prize is her legacy: a South African icon who showed the world what our sound can do.

Letta Mbulu isn’t just a singer. She’s a movement with a microphone.

Photo: Letta Mbulu