SA: Miriam Makeba featured in new whisky ad

The advert coincides with Women’s Month celebrations to commemorate one of the most treasured voices in South African music. Featuring local artists Msaki and Sun-EL Musician, the advert pays homage to the enormous influence Makeba had, and continues to have on the local music scene. It features a song called ‘Pata Pata – Saguquka’ that is inspired by Makeba’s 1967 hit song ‘Pata Pata’.

The remastered track will be available for download and streaming on all major digital platforms with all proceeds to be donated to the Miriam Makeba Foundation.

The campaign demonstrates that the best way to honour icons is to build on their legacy by pushing one craft to the next level. It began airing on DStv, SABC and e.tv from 15 August as part of the whisky brand’s #WhiskyRemastered campaign.

“The campaign aims to celebrate and acknowledge South African creatives, past and present, who never settle for perfection but continue to innovate and advance their craft, inspiring future artists for generations to come,” Distell Group's whisky and White Spirits marketing manager, Lynsay Sampson, said.

“This is the essence of #WhiskyRemastered. Miriam Makeba was a woman of great substance. We worked closely with the Miriam Makeba Foundation to ensure we honoured her legacy in a way that captured her charisma, her unbounded talent, and her love for her craft. We’re honoured for her to be a part of our story.”

Sampson said she was thrilled to collaborate with Msaki and Sun-EL Musician when they remastered ‘Pata Pata’.

Msaki said: “It's a pretty heavy thing to think about how you take a song that was so iconic in the past and the present, and to reimagine in your own natural way. I don't want to lie, it's intimidating. But it's also a huge honour.”  

Sun-EL Musician added: “I want everyone to be happy. Somehow you just learn to let go and trust the process and believe in the people that you work with.”

The creative team spent six months making the advertisement. Speaking about the revolutionary technique, Egg Films director Zwelethu Radebe said: “To get the legend of Miriam Makeba to perform once more, we analysed a wide selection of archival footage. Once we narrowed down the selects, we filmed a body double performing the song, matching the angles, and lighting of the stock footage. We then replaced our double’s head with the archival footage of Miriam, matching the look and feel of the old footage to create an authenticate remastering of the classic song.”