Bright Side of the Moon: Moonchild Sanelly on her rise

So many artists are renowned for making remarkable entrances. From the fabled days of the king of stage theatrics Alice Cooper to Pink’s piñata, circa 2010, where she exploded from the party trick only to fall to the stage in a sea of balloons. South African musician Moonchild Sanelly doesn’t need the pyrotechnics to arrive. On entering the video call, she’s a vision of loud colours (her signature vivid blue curls framing her face) and brilliant bombast with pastel acrylic nails that go on for days swaying back and forth as she waves hello from her home in Johannesburg. 

Sanelly, born Sanelisiwe Twisha, has never been shy of the limelight. Growing up in Port Elizabeth on the South Africa's Eastern cape, she was surrounded by aspiring artists. Her brother was a hip-hop producer and her Mum an established jazz vocalist. From as young as four, Sanelly was entered into beauty contests and encouraged to sing Brenda Fassie songs to the panel of judges. Often referred to as the Queen of African Pop, the symbolism isn’t lost on Sanelly, the now-international performer. “Even now, people always connect my personality and the way I move to her [Fassie’s] attitude. I was brought up knowing that it's okay to be yourself.” 

Fassie wasn’t the only strong woman shaping Sanelly’s self-belief from a young age. “It's also something that my mum instilled in me. I used to get scolded more for walking behind a group of friends, than for coming home late. She'd say, ‘I don't ever want you to follow. I want you to be in the same lane learning how to be a leader, or they're following you. But never follow.’” Strapped firmly into the driving seat by her teens then, Sanelly went from high school to study fashion in the coastal city of Durban and was immediately immersed in a raft of musical genres and styles. 

For the songwriter though it wasn’t so much the scene but the stage that she was seeking once more. “I never knew what genre was on the table. I just needed that mic so I'd say yes,” she says, animatedly. Feeling frustrated by the shackles of big band arrangements, Sanelly was ready to step out alone. “When I was in that jazz space, I was like 'Hmm, I see this [but] I need more. I need something that I can create myself. I need to have fun!'”

The arrival of ghetto funk in 2007 sparked something in Sanelly. Her debut record, Rabulapha!, brought to life with composer and drummer Tshepang Ramoba, marked her first official release under the moniker Moonchild Sanelly. But don’t be confused about the namesake being some kind of Sasha Fierce stage persona, as Sanelly is quick to attest. “This is the same look that I was rejected for. My biggest fight is showing the kids that there's no uniform to success, you can be yourself.”

Expression and empowerment are central themes in Sanelly’s upcoming release, Phases. An album that, as the name suggests, is a masterpiece of cosmic proportions. Written during the dissolution of her engagement to model and rapper Gontse More, the artist found writing the 19 songs that appear on the record was actually one of the silver linings to the last few years. “Shout out to COVID because that allowed me to go into my feelings and acknowledge my vulnerable ones. [Before that] I didn't have time to even think because things were moving so fast.”

Breakup banger Over You dishes out airy amapiano drum pads over The Streets-style synth lines as Sanelly reasons: ‘Ima get over you / Because when I get over you / I won’t need tissue’. On Too Late Sanelly offers a safe space for all forms of relationships. “I wrote it for the people that want to be side chicks,” she explains. “It celebrates, it doesn't shun. Having a vagina is an adventure sport and if you survive you might as well own who you are.”

While Sanelly might’ve been leaving one relationship, Phases finds her forging unions with a whole legion of equally talented performers. Strip Club reunites the South African musician with London MC Ghetts, following their previous team up on the grime star’s 2021 single Mozambique where Sanelly dishes out a verse in her native Xhosa tongue. No stranger to chartopping collabs, Sanelly also featured on Beyoncé’s MY POWER as part of her 2019 Lion King-inspired project, The Gift. She admits it was quite a whirlwind experience. “I was in London when they called me. I literally landed and went straight back to the airport!”

With international travel back on the cards, Sanelly is finally making it over to UK shores this summer. But even with a recent SXSW performance under her belt and the fields of Worthy Farm calling, beneath the blue curls and the tapered talons is still the same ambitious fashion student spinning straw into gold. “I used to carry a domestic machine to sew every morning before the show,” she recalls proudly. “I’m getting a machine delivered in London so that wherever I still have my waves, I can create.” On record and off-rack, Moonchild Sanelly eclipses them all.

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Phases is released on 10 Jun via Transgressive Records