South Africa’s latest Grammy Winners receive a heroes welcome at OR Tambo International Airport
On Friday 10 February the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture held a welcome ceremony for South African musicians Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode upon their arrival back from the most prestigious awards ceremony in the world. The trio have been officially declared Grammy Award winners in the Best Global Music Performance category for their collaboration ‘Bayethe’. The 65th annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles, California on the 5th of February, and hosted by another South African Trevor Noah.
Speaking at the official airport reception, a radiant Nomcebo Zikode said “It is an incredible honour to be received like this by our own people. God has decided to show off with us. I’m incredibly happy and proud to play a part in inspiring young South African women from all races and cultures in our beautiful country and I want to say to that young woman in a small township, if you think you can’t do it, just know that it is possible.”
An elated Zakes Bantwini said,” Minister we want to say thank you. I have never experienced such love in our beautiful country, like I am receiving today. And this goes without saying that we are a country of possibilities. We are really a country of opportunities. Minister, we are gathered here, just at the backdrop of SONA, where our President yesterday was speaking to us as a nation about the plans and what’s going to happen moving forward. And this event is one of the first, right after the President’s speech. We are trusting you, Minister. We are trusting our politicians, we are trusting businesspeople, we are trusting the media that at least we are going to lead this country with so many opportunities.”
Renowned composer & Producer, Wouter Kellerman said, “Thank you Minister Nathi Mthethwa for welcoming us in such a beautiful way today. South Africa has such incredible richness in our music and in our culture. I took it for granted growing up. Only when I started travelling did I actually realise that this is not the case everywhere else in the world and how special it is and since then, it’s been my mission to export South African music and culture to the world. So, this today - to win a Grammy for an all-South African song is just an exquisitely beautiful moment for me personally. Thank you to Zakes and Nomcebo for sharing your creativity with me.”
Minister Nathi Mthethwa “Nomcebo, Zakes siyanihalalisela. Congratulations for what you did for your country, for lifting your country up. We are here mainly to hear the three of you but let me tell you a story”.
The Minister then proceeded to narrate and said, “A few years ago Wouter Kellerman came to me and said “Minister I have won a Grammy Award; but I want other South Africans to win a Grammy Award. I want younger South Africans to go to the international stage to win the Grammy Awards, so support us. I said to him “we are in. We will support you all the way”. Little did we know that that support was going to end up with younger South Africans as he said, winning the Grammy Awards. Thank you very much Kellerman. A true patriot, somebody who’s working not only for himself but for his country and for his people - and today we have here icons, champions, Grammy Award winners. New from the box. This is your first Grammy Award so we expect more from you. And I am sure South Africans will back you up all the way, as we will. We as a department support all artists, we take them all over the world and expose them, those who are both known and unknown, and we will continue to do that. Ours is to support our artists to grow. We are here and we want to hear you”.
Today’s ceremony was carried live across all major news networks in the presence of family members and fans. This is a first time Grammy for Department of Sport, Arts and Culture Ambassador, Zikode and a first for Bantwini. This was Kellerman’s 4th Grammy nomination and his second Grammy win.
We salute you on behalf of all the people of this our beautiful country, South Africa.
Media enquiries:
Masechaba Khumalo: Spokesperson (Minister)
Tel: 082 858 4415
Email: MasechabaK@dsac.gov.za
Zimasa Velaphi: Chief Director Comms and Marketing
Tel: 072 172 8925
Email: zimasav@dac.gov.za
