Zoë Modiga: The audacity of authenticity and the art of letting go

“The Vault is a love-themed time machine dating from 2007 to 2025, although there is a song called Little Girl that actually has a little doodling song that I wrote, jumping up and down a bit, not older than four or five years old. That’s the ‘I’m glad I’m not falling’ at the end of the first track,” says Zoë Modiga of her new album.

She tells Eyewitness News it has been a beautiful experience to visit all these pieces of herself over the years and, in some way, make peace with them.

She hopes to create a "domino effect" through music where listeners feel empowered to bring their whole selves into every room they enter.

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“But being able to work through all this material that is essentially my diary, all of 2025 was very cathartic. Being able to take from all the tools that I've learned over the years and really put part of myself through the perspective of being a grown woman... all the parts where I was trying to figure out my limbs, my nostrils, my sights, my everything about me has been very interesting, very freeing, very scary, but mostly empowering and beautiful.”

Modiga, born and raised in KwaZulu-Natal, is a quintessential artist representing the present and future of South African music. She draws from human experience, identity, and storytelling to create a distinct sound that communicates a modern, evolving African story without losing its essence.

She says she surrenders to the process, allowing the music to belong to the audience once it is released.

”So I really enjoy being led instead, and then to allow the fact that I'm doing it with the intent to be authentic, to be vulnerable, to be honest, to be the thing that then gets to be translated to the music lovers," Modiga explains. 

"But there are certain parts that I have to surrender to and to be compiled by, and I think that's one of those, allowing myself to just be there, to be led, and then people will receive what they need from the music. Because by the time it comes out, they own it. I don't own it anymore. I've had two decades of sitting around with it. Now it's basically free rein. It belongs to all of us.”

Naturally light on her feet, Modiga is known for movement and performing with her audience rather than simply for them, ensuring they become active participants in her performance.

Speaking to Eyewitness News about the introduction of her producer tag, RHA, Modiga explains that it serves to differentiate her production work from her singing. The tag represents her ability to produce outside of vocal performance, including beat-making, and aims to symbolise the audacity of free expression.

"You know, there's no box that you could put me in that would fit, and there's no box that should. So my way of saying this is just so it's not confusing for people, but it's all one person, it's all one soul. It's all one spirit," she says. "It's one person just wanting to encourage collective healing, collective expression, collective emancipation to exist exactly as you are, and just the audacity of that, right? That’s what that producer tag communicates. And you have to be a little bit delusional in your audacity to express freely.”

The songbird has collaborated with some of South Africa’s finest musicians, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Lira, Thandiswa Mazwai, Johnny Clegg, Simphiwe Dana, Abigail Kubeka, Madala Kunene, Louis Maholo, and Tshepo Tshola.

While her label, Yelloëwax, has always been the home for her music, Modiga notes that her role as a composer and producer is not new, though this record marks a return to a more solitary creative process.

“With this particular record, very much like Yellow: The Novel, my debut record, all of the creativity was through myself. It's been very frightening, as are all of these projects. They're always forged in fire. They're always forged in needing to climb a mountain. It's not something that's easy to romanticise, because it does take everything for it to be something in the first place."

She concludes by reflecting on the legacy of her work.

"I've had to realise that sometimes creating pathways also means going into unknown territory, and that can be a very confrontational space to walk into... There are some things that I do know I'm creating for people that are not alive yet, and we won't be in the same timeline. In an era of instant gratification, I’m a human being. I also want to know I’m doing things the right way. I also need to be affirmed. But there is a thing about sowing seeds to something that you won't see—that's also the reality, and it's the reason why I quote all the cultural icons that I do.”