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Actress Miranda Mokhele Ntshangase is on a mission to boost her music career after years of focusing on TV drama series and movies.
“Yes, my fans will see me more on the singing side,” she told City Press recently, adding that this did not mean she planned to completely “ignore” her acting and business talents.
“I have been singing since I was very young and music has always been my first love,” said Ntshangase.
She studied music and life performance and received a bachelor of arts degree at the School of Motion Picture and Live Performance (AFDA) in Auckland Park.
She has just released a single Lendoda – a song she confesses to have written about her husband.
“It’s about the first day I met him when I was charmed and I was so happy to see meet him,” she chuckled.
She credited her colleagues for helping write the song particularly Mpho Ludidi, a renewed South African singer and songwriter based in Sweden.
The 30-year-old mother said her music career and acting needed a delicate balance act because she also needed to still be with her family at the end of the day.
“I always find balance between the two careers, acting and singing. My husband Mhlo and my two kids, Zakhe and Zethembe, are the best support system I can ever wish for,” she said.
“As an artist you have to work hard and balance everything because it is what you love,” she said.
Born in the small Free State town of Jagersfontein, Miranda is not new to the music industry. Her debut album, New Beginnings, was recorded back in 1986-1987 under the record label BBB-music (Bass Breaks and Beats). She shot to fame when she acted as new presenter Latoya on the second season of the SABC1 drama series Tshisa between 2008 and 2009.
Acting consumed her life as she made short films and mini-series, including the SABC1 drama series Mthunzini.com, the e.tv series eKasi: Our Stories playing the lead in the film Brother’s Keeper, and Sokhulu and Partners.
Asked what her motto in life was, she said it came from Oscar winner Denzel Washington who said: “Keep working, keep striving, never give up fall down seven times, get up eight.”
“So to me the industry is built that way; when one door closes for you, go to the next one … I am saying if you do not get a chance in some areas in the media industry try the other,” she said.
On the prospects of her career in 2017, she said life had not slowed down because invitations for “great gigs” were flooding her diary.
“I am going to be on Isidingo and also back on the series Queen at the end of this month,” she smiled.
Miranda said she understood that nothing was easy. As a result she believed that “working hard” and consistently building one’s reputation often brought best rewards and “loyal followers and supporters” across most media platforms.
