"Umlilo" is a single by a South African DJ professionally known as

DJ Zinhle Ntombezinhle Jiyane Mohosana (born 30 December 1982) known professionally as DJ Zinhle, is a South African DJ, producer, businesswomen, media personality. Zinhle has also pursued an acting career. She made her on-screen debut as judge in ''J ...

, released on 23 August 2019, the single features vocals from female singer Rethabile Khumalo with production from

Mvzzle Gift Selaelo Morukhuladi (born 11 November 1994), professionally known as Mvzzle () is a South African DJ, singer-songwriter, and producer born in Musina and raised in Westenburg, Polokwane. He is famous for producing the single " Umlilo" by D ...

. Umlilo has been certified multi-platinum and within its first three months, it reached over 5.1 million streams.

Background

When translated, “Umlilo” means fire, translated from

isiZulu Zulu ( ), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in, and indigenous to, Southern Africa. Nguni dialects are regional or social varieties of the Nguni language, distinguished by vocabulary, pronunciatio ...

to English. In the jam, three artists are grateful for what God has done to them. He has opened their eyes and ears, and they can speak because of “God’s fire alone. It is also essential to point out that each of the three artists chose their lines well.

contacted renowned DJ and entrepreneur,

with two beats, one of which is now the smash hit ‘Umlilo’ featuring Rethabile – who had earlier DM’d,

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

proposing a collaboration with her, one thing led to the other and single was produced. Zinhle, in an edition of Red Bull Live With, explained to Mo Flava about the exact meaning behind the hit song. "There has been a big debate about 'Umlilo' because it's such a big club or party song and people don't know that its actually a sing that praises God. It talks about the wonders of God's love and it is based on

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

scriptures which is amazing", explained the DJ. The single was released through Universal Music South Africa on behalf of

Kalawa Jazmee Kalawa Jazmee Records is an independent record label based in South Africa. The label is known for its contribution to the development of the Kwaito genre of music in South Africa. Artists * Oskido * Professor * Mandla Mofokeng * Trompies * D ...

Composition and lyrics

"Umlilo" is a

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

track that has a touch of

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

. The song features an "upbeat tempo beat" with Rethabile's vocals quoting a Bible verse

Critical reception

The female producer

was accused of buying nominations for the song and she had to clap back to clarify the mistakes made by the media.

Accolades

The hit-single went on to receive triple-platinum plaques, and nominated for Record Of The Year (fan-voted) at

26th South African Music Awards The 26th Annual South African Music Awards were held on 3–7 August 2020. Unlike previous years shows, the ceremony was broadcast as a five-night event, with the first four episodes being 30 minutes long, while the fifth one was a 45-minute grand ...

. The single won a NAMA (award).

Certifications

Music video

released a visuals teaser of her hit single on Wednesday of . The video depicts the female DJ alongside a couple of dancers, Rethabile singing on the microphone and

behind the decks The official full length music video was released on , via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

In celebration of the song's success,

released a second latinumvideo for Umlilo in December and just a few months later, the video has reached over 3 million views on

References

External links

* on

Musixmatch Musixmatch is an Italian music data company and platform for users to search and share song lyrics with translations. Musixmatch has 80 million users (50M active users), 12 million songs with their respective lyrics, and 115+ employees. In 202 ...

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