Letoya Makhene looks back on her collabo with Ma'Brrr and how much she adored her

Actress and singer Letoya Makhene-Pulumo has the fondest memories about the late Brenda Fassie. Having recorded a song with the icon called Nginje when she was only 17, Letoya has shared how much she adored Ma'Brrr.

Speaking to TshisaLIVE, Letoya said her fondest memories were that of family time. They spent a lot of Christmases together and the pool parties are some of the treasured memories she has of MaBrrr.

“My fondest memories of her were family moments because that's what she was. She wasn't a superstar in our home. These are people we grew up with,  she loved my mother as well. She took my mom as her own because my mom was that person to her, but my mom was that person to everybody.

“She would just waltz in and come and lie on my mother's lap and just say 'I'm tired Aggie. I miss you and Bluza'. And sometimes she would just break out in song and my mother would tell her it's OK Brenda - sing. Her singing would be healing for her.” 

Taking to Instagram the singer shared a clip of her musical family singing the song she did with Brenda at her 37th birthday dinner last month.    

Letoya remembers the day Brenda asked her to do a collabo with her so vividly, saying the little girl in her was chuffed.  

“The day she said she wanted to record this song with me, I was in awe, I was humbled, I was excited. I needed to pinch myself the whole time because it was something that was finally happening, and it didn't happen because my dad said it should happen, it was her, she said she wanted to record a track with Miss Letoya. 

“She would just randomly walk into our house. So one of those nights where she randomly walked into our house, she would walk in song and she just looked at my dad and she said, 'Blond, Gerald, you are wasting my time, I want Letoya. Tomorrow bring her in studio.' She would walk in and she just said, 'I want this child tomorrow'.”

Th3 37-year old said she co-wrote the song in English while MaBrr and her dad translated the song into isiXhosa and isiZulu. Nginje was produced by her father.

According to Letoya, Brenda wanted her dad, because he had been previously cheated out of MaBrrr's royalties at the time. 

“This was her way of making right with my father what this  man did wrong and she was just like 'you are going to come to studio and you are gonna come and produce it'.  I had to write some of my parts and obviously isiZulu/isiXhosa — was basically explaining the concept of what I wanted to say like in English and then my dad and her were just translating it and they came up with the melody. We literally worked on this track together - all three of us.”