Bongi gives us the dope

Bongi Mvuyana - and her music - have been a long time coming.

There have been murmurs about her for what feels like an eternity. But at the weekend the 26-year-old Pietermaritzburg-born singer finally dropped her debut album, Dopamine, on iTunes.

Mvuyana already has an impressive fan club. Thandiswa Mazwai, one of her biggest influences, rapper AKA, Pabi Moloi, and Kabomo love her.

Kabomo waxed lyrical about Mvuyana on Twitter in February when her debut single, I Wonder, was released.

"What a talent! What a tone! And she can write! Love it!"

Two more singles have since dropped - the slow-burning Gold and the Maskandi-influenced Sweet Love.

Of the adulation, she said: "We took so much time working on the music. We had to make sure we gave people 150%. So for people in the industry to genuinely like my music is affirmation that I am doing something right."

It took two years to make the album, much longer than expected.

"I think a lot of people take listeners for granted. There were a lot of things I had to fight for in this album."

Some people in her stable did not know how to categorise her music, which she calls "alternative soul".

"I'm glad they couldn't [classify it because] it gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted."

She was full of praise for 340ml guitarist Tiago Paulo, who produced the album and "understood my vision".

Slim and tall with a keen eye for fashion, and a sweet voice to boot, Mvuyana is in the same mould as Malaysian singer Yuna Zarai.

"When I was younger, I knew exactly what I wanted. I listened to a lot of Maxwell, Thandiswa Mazwai, Nat King Cole, and Beethoven. So I wanted a fusion of all those [influences]. But when I told people how I wanted the album to sound like, a lot of them were like, 'What?'."

The title Dopaminesuggests that the album is a straight-up feel-good production but she said fans would feel "a bunch of things".

"It's a celebration of love, but also a lament for when you're heart-broken."