LIRA MEANS LOVE LIRA Lira, whose name means ‘love’ in Sesotho, was born in South Africa, and her early life was defined by the harsh realities of growing up during apartheid.
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oday she is a multiplatinum-selling artist and eleven times South African Music Award-winning Afro-soul vocalist. Her lyrics are inspiring, telling stories of optimism and of mastering your destiny. Lira visited Namibia as a guest of 99FM to host a master class for local artists in Windhoek.
into it I felt desperately unfulfilled and I didn’t know why. I remember thinking to myself: This is weird – I’ve got the job, the status, the money, but I’m unhappy. So if this isn’t it, then what is happiness? I had to define it for myself, and my only happiness at that time was being on stage and singing so, it seemed a logical direction. The first thing I did was plan how I would achieve this happiness pursuing music. I drew up a five-year plan and, as they say, the rest is history.
MYD: Lira, let’s start at the beginning. How did you become a songwriter? L: I observed my family and how they responded to music. It seemed to unite us. At the time, I did not even speak or understand the English language, but it seemed to me that the words of the music were articulating what my family was feeling. I remember at age seven thinking to myself if there ever was a reason to write music, that’s the effect I would want it to have. It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I actually tried to write my own song, and it was a love song. We entered a talent show and went on to win best composition, best performance and best vocalist. So that was the first time I was affirmed that maybe I could actually do this.
MYD: We hear so often on the 99FM MYD Show that you need to be strategic with your life. L: I think it is essential. I call it having a vision: what are you up to, where are you going, what are you doing? People go, “I want to sing.” Okay, stand there and sing! But vision is about the detail. How do you want to be perceived, how do you want to live, what kind of impact do you want to have? For me, I thought five years was a reasonable time to do something that I could be proud of in this industry. I quit my job; I actually cashed in my pension fund and I had some savings, so I had enough money to survive for a year. I gave myself a buffer and I felt a year was a reasonable time. A plan gives you a sense of direction, something to work towards. Opportunities will come up, but you will know when something is good for you based on its alignment to your vision. It becomes your navigation system, and so a plan is essential. It’s your soul saying, “Yes, this is good for us – you are on the right track.” When it feels bad and it feels like a struggle, that’s your soul telling you that you veered off the path. We’ve never been taught how to use our navigation system. It took me years to even uncover that and to realise it’s so simple. I realise that desire, that wanting to feel good, was essentially what made me quit my job in the first place, because my spirit was saying, “This is not us. This is not what we are supposed to do with our life.”
MYD: From there you didn’t immediately go on to become a songwriter. L: No, at the time it was a hobby because nothing in my environment had given me the perception that I could do this for a living. When we entered the talent show it was myself, my best friend and two other guys, who were also best friends. That gave us the opportunity to perform in various clubs, for people of all races, of all ages and I just remember falling in love with the idea that we had created these songs out of thin air essentially, and there we were singing them and connecting with absolute strangers. Through music, colour barriers dissolved, age barriers dissolved, it was just magical for me, and so I think it was the first time I considered wanting to do this for a living. Real life beckoned so I studied Accounting because it was my favourite subject. I kept singing, and I was just falling deeper and deeper in love with it, but I still considered it a hobby. When I finished school and entered the job market, that completely cut me off from my creative side. I was working Monday to Saturday, and so I sort of left that dream behind. It was lovely to be making money, to be educated, to be wearing the power suit. It was exciting, but two years
MYD: Beautiful that you followed this knowing, because it is a worthwhile pursuit, finding your happiness. L: We are meant to have happiness. It’s as natural as breathing, as natural as the sun coming up every morning. It’s just how life is supposed to be, and we’ve lost the plot as humanity, in a sense.
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