wnship Madonna

2004

be buried at her birthplace in Langa, Cape Town on Sunday.

hill Hospital, where she was admitted on 26 April after an asthma attack led to cardio-respiratory arrest.
years old.

r over a week, but it was already "Too Late for Mama" - one of many songs that Fassie was famous for.

oring a huge hit in 1983 with her debut maxi single "Weekend Special", recorded with her band The Big
rd living that put The Rolling Stones to shame. Brenda Fassie, outrageous

et throughout her turbulent life she continued to deliver the goods, becoming the biggest-selling artist
as produced.

he Townships'
n at the age of four when, inspired by her pianist mother, she formed a singing group, the Tiny Tots.

nation to match, she had moved to Johannesburg to seek fame and fortune.

eight of the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s to give a voice to marginalised black South Africans.

e was also capable of getting people dancing across the colour line - a feat she achieved from the start Brenda Fassie fools aroun
e and a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, making the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart and featuring in
rope, Brazil and Australia.

most accomplished musical producers, a collaboration that resulted in the 1989 hit album "Too Late for
ey Grow", "Stay Away From My Man", and "Don't Follow Me I'm Married".

Dumisani Ngubeni, giving birth to a son, Bongani - now 19 years old.

orce him in 1991 amid rumours of physical abuse.

nd return Features
rehabilitation clinics, missed gigs, alienated fans, was sued by concert promoters, sank into debt, and
, who had died after a drug binge, in Johannesburg in 1995.

"Now Is The Time", in which she performed two duets with Congolese superstar Papa Wemba.

m "Memeza" ("Shout"), which included the song "Vulindlela" and earned Fassie the South African Music
st-selling release of the year.

d also earned Fassie the 1999 continental Kora award for best female artist.

"Nomakanjani" (1999), "Amadlozi" (2000) - featuring the hits "Thola 'madlozi" and "Nakupenda" - and
ll produced by Twala.

ve seller - followed by "Myekeleni" in 2002 and "Mali" in 2004.

opies. "No other South African artist has ever come close to this record", Tonight notes, "not even top-
ales are thought to be closer to the 250 000 mark.
d at the South African Music Awards (Samas) at the end of the month."

hocker'
She openly admitted to being a drug addict and bisexual - taboo in the townships - and her antics, both
get for tabloid fodder in the Sunday papers.

e's breasts popped out of her costume. "The audience gasped, but Fassie unabashedly grabbed her bare
aid of the show. "This", she proclaimed, "is Africa!"

my trademark", she once said in an interview.

plate for musical superstardom township-style (From the cover of the 2000 album 'Amadlozi')

kstage with kwaito star Senyaka at a youth festival in Johannesburg celebrating Human
to: Lucky Sindane)

heid
hifted from the "bubblegum" of the 1980s to the edges of the dominant kwaito style of the late 1990s.

wnship style - a combination of hip-hop, slowed-down 'house' music with traditional African bass, sung
Zulu and Sotho."

, and the outrageous template for musical superstardom township-style.

nt to South Africa'
enda Fassie was many things: immensely talented, tempestuous and outrageous being among them. But
and an icon whose passing will leave a huge vacuum in the music industry.

e hearts of your millions of fans around the world."

tory will remind us that she could sing like no other, and that she gave us music to last a lifetime ...

ed by a deep sadness ... Could it have been because she had a hole in her soul that all the fame, money
could not fill?

Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain. In all of their lives something was amiss.

d black people and women. Though she ended up dying in a luxury clinic in Johannesburg, her childhood
changed in the three decades since she left it in pursuit of bigger dreams ...

ugs, Aids and general despair? Who knows how a Weekend Special turns out?

at her funeral, would do well to consider that perhaps Fassie died of a broken heart."

a be loved. I just wanna be loved."

nfo reporter