Dihan Slabbert (born 3 June 1982), is a South African singer, performer, composer, producer, musician, and songwriter. He is best known as one of the lead vocalists in the South African pop group, Hi-5.

Career

Dihan sang at an early age, as a member of the Northern Gauteng Youth Choir. In 2000, he wrote, produced and staged his first musical production, appropriately named, "Debut." He graduated from the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria (, ) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and ''de facto'' capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johan ...

with a Bcom in Tourism Management. In 2003, competing against 120 young men, he was selected to become a member of

boy-band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands dance a ...

Hi-5. During his years performing and touring with the group, he received several awards, including the ATKV Crescendo songwriting contest, Africa Vision, the Geraas award for best music video ("Kinders van die Wind"), as well as two

Naledi Theatre Award The Naledi Theatre Awards are annual South African national theatre awards held in Gauteng launched in 2004 by Dawn Lindberg after the Vita Awards ended. Productions staged throughout the previous year are eligible, and the candidates are evaluat ...

nominations for the sold-out run of ''Oh Boy!'' at the ''Sound Stage Theatre''. He recorded the

Blue Bulls The Blue Bulls (), known for sponsorship reasons as the Vodacom Blue Bulls, is a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament and the United Rugby Championship. They are governed by their second team t ...

' new anthem "Een Hart Een Droom" as a single, and sang it in their home stadium. His "Time After Time", hit the number one spot on Highveld Stereo, a popular

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

radio station. He was a guest artist in ''Nataniël and Friends'' at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

in London. He has worked with

South African music The music of South Africa exhibits a Culture of South Africa, culturally varied musical heritage in conjunction with the Ethnic groups in South Africa, multi-ethnic populace. Genres with the greatest international recognition being Mbube (genr ...

industry's high profile artists, including performer Nataniël, director Richard Loring, and choreographer-director Tyrone Watkins. In 2005, he recorded "Songbird" as a duet with Nataniël. The launch of Dihan's solo career was in 2006. His second self-produced one-man show, ''Prinz''. was presented in English and

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

. He released his first solo single and CD, ''The Lava Song'', a quartet of ballads, including "Silwermaan", in which he showcases his own piano rendition of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". Dihan made guest appearances on South African TV programs such as ''

Backstage Backstage may refer to: * Backstage (theatre), the areas of a theatre that are not part of the house or stage Film and television * ''Back Stage'' (1917 film), a silent film starring Oliver Hardy * ''Back Stage'' (1919 film), a silent film starri ...

'', ''7de Laan'', ''Free Talk'', ''Geraas'', ''Kwela'', ''Fiesta'' and ''Saterdagnag Laat''. Dihan was lead vocalist and performer in several of Tyrone Watkins' musical productions, including ''Out Of This World'', ''Let's Party'' and ''Bollywood Blitz''. He starred in the ''80's Sensation'' at ''The Performer Theatre'' in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

. He is currently a member of the pop-classical male vocal group, "Il Quinto."

Discography

Singles

* "Een Hart Een Droom", Hi-5 (2003) * "Soebat", Hi-5 (2003) *"Kinders van die Wind", Hi-5 (2004) *"Time After Time", Hi-5 (2004) * "Shnappi", Hi-5 (2005) * "The Lava Song" (2006)

Albums

* ''Hi-5'', self-titled (2004) * ''The Lava Song'' (2006)

Compilations

* ''Accapêlle'', various artists (2005) * ''Fashion'', Nataniël (2005) * ''Die Crescendo-Supersterre'', various artists (2006) * ''God Bless the Child'', various artists (2007)

DVDs

*''Live at The Centurion Theatre'', Rina Hugo (2005) *''By Birth'', Nataniël (2006)

Music Videos

*"Kinders van die Wind", Hi-5 *"Time After Time", Hi-5

Theatre productions

* ''Debut'', solo production (2000) * ''Oh-Boy!'' (2004) * ''Afrikiti'' (2005) * ''Accapêlle'' (2005) * ''The Moses Machine'', with Nataniël and Kyle Grant (2006) * ''Prinz'', solo production (2006) * ''Out of this World'' (2006) * ''Bollywood Blitz'' (2006) * ''Let's Party'' (2007) * ''Houtkruis die Musical'' (2008) * ''80's Sensation'' (2008)

References

External links

Dihan Slabbert
at Facebook
Dihan Slabbert Fan Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slabbert, Dihan 1982 births Living people Musicians from Pretoria South African male composers South African pianists South African accordionists 21st-century South African male singers South African pop singers University of Pretoria alumni English-language singers from South Africa Afrikaans-language singers of South Africa