Soulful songbird

Lira talks from the heart about going green

Award-winning singer/songwriter Lira breezes into the Southern Sun hotel in Hyde Park wearing a vibrant rainbow-coloured blouse. She’s a beautiful embodiment of everything the rainbow nation stands for, but few realise that she’s also a fierce green campaigner who’s passionate about people minimising

their impact on the environment as much as possible.

From her earliest days, Lira’s music has always been inspirational, positive

and empowering, and deliberately so. In a song like “Abba” on her latest

album Return to Love, for example, she tackles the green issue by commenting

on how idiotic and self-destructive human beings can be.

A staunch pescatarian and passionate advocate for using gas and solar power wherever possible, Lira truly does practice what she preaches. She even admits that she’s urged her company’s driver to rock an environmentally-friendly scooter while doing errands in and around the city, and she’s quickly infuriated when she sees new buildings popping up that don’t adhere to green principles.

“As a nation, I understand that going green and adopting eco-friendly technologies like solar power isn’t something that everyone can afford,”

she says. “But from the government’s side, I am shocked that every single

new building going up isn’t green! It should be a mandate – and for the

big corporates too. They can afford it, and by adopting green principles

they would influence their employees to adopt similar changes in their own

homes. Going green is a lifestyle change. It needs to become part of our

value systems.”

Besides urging people to make responsible choices for our planet, Lira

is passionate about the responsibility that comes with the freedom our

countrymen have fought for. As a role model and global ambassador for this

country, she feels an obligation to inspire and educate the youth.

“I believe that education is the most sustainable form of change for

us, because that’s where we can make a difference,” she says. “Young people

are disillusioned, and we need to give them hope, otherwise we’re in huge

trouble. I feel a great responsibility, because I made it, and that alone

blows my mind.

“Living in the hood is tough; it’s not the right environment for someone who is ambitious, because everyone has to stay on the same level. The hood crucifies those who step outside. But I did it, and I have something to say and share.

It would be madness not to at least try to do that.”

Life’s work

Lira’s life story explains a lot about the source of her passion and drive. She

grew up in the township of Daveyton on the East Rand, but her dreams

proved to be too big to be quelled by the social or economic hardships that

she had to endure.

Today she is one of South Africa’s most successful artists, having won

two SAMA Awards (for Best Female Artist and Album of the Year) in 2008

with her album Soul In Mind and securing multi-platinum sales on her

two albums thereafter.

A year after her live concert was filmed for DVD (becoming the fastest

and highest selling videodisc in South Africa, reaching three times platinum

status), Lira found herself at the 2010 Soccer World Cup kickoff concert

sharing microphones with the likes of Alicia Keys, Shakira and the Black

Eyed Peas. She is also currently in the post production stages of a second

DVD, entitled The Captured Tour.

“We’re always told that things are not possible, I think that in many ways

I represent possibility,” she admits. Lira attributes much of her success to hard work, attitude and perseverance, even though it took three long years before she got her first break. To be such an unlikely success, considering her humble

beginnings, is an honour that Lira takes very seriously, and although she has

never made a secret of the fact she’s trying to break into the international

market, she says her music will always stay true to her African roots.

“Where I come from is so important; what else do I have that would make me unique?” she asks. “That’s something nobody can take away from me. And I also feel like we have a story to tell. We’ve been separate from the world. We’ve only been part of the global scene for the last 16 years really. So now we have this opportunity to introduce the world to who we are – through our fashion, through events like the Soccer World Cup, through our music. And I feel that I have a part to play in that.”

*This article was first published in Sandton magazine's March issue.