We might not have a Hollywood budget for our measly soaps and TV series or the fanfare that sees a conference for just about every genre of visual or written media, but our stars have slowly walked out of Covid-19’s dark cloud as bona fide trailblazers.
And no, we are not referring to our older exports like Charlize Theron who has become an Oscar-winning action star, nor are we referring to Sasha Pieterse, an icon in an American teen drama genre and an early-in-life expat.
It’s the current league of megastars who are quickly becoming global household names, heard from our quiet townships to corners of Beyoncé’s personal home.
And no-one quite embodies this quite like Black Coffee, who caught news headlines this week for a sold out show at Madison Square Garden in New York. Famed as a tourist destination as revered as the Big Apple’s Time Square, it not only rakes in millions every year but has become a character of its own making, thanks to fictional shows like Gossip Girl and Sex And the City.
As an intersection of New York’s history, Madison Square Garden is a venue reserved for elite events such as Michael Jackson’s Bad World Tour, the Concert for New York and is even home to the die-hard phenomenon that is WWE wrestling.
While our social issues may leave us in the dark and dour most of the time, our stars have become a pillar of light.
Preceding Black Coffee’s feat is Trevor Noah, who was sold out at the venue for one of his shows, putting a stamp on his domination in the land of the star-spangled banner.
Noah also sold out every seat at the Coca-Cola Dome in Dubai. The 17,000 Emiratis who flocked to watch the local funnyman helped set a record for the country’s highest sold-out comedic show.
But why are all these countries falling in love with South Africa so much?
Well, all the trends we experience typically come from a source, and it can often be one country where the lines between appreciation and appropriation occur. A most recent example is South Korea and its music.
The first wave hit the world in the early 2010s, producing viral sensation Psy with Gangnam Style. The song not only put K-pop on the map but put a very specific area of commerce and fashion on the lips of music lovers. When the mid-2010s came out of its politically correct activism, South Korea’s pop culture would take over once again with soaps, fashion weeks and viral stars, who had the world trading allegiances from divas like Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift or Beyoncé for boy bands and beauty trends exclusive to the East Asian country.
While trends can often take more than a decade to phase out and lose interest with audiences, South Korea did the unthinkable by reclaiming an audience soon after the interest had died. And we can thank the globalisation steered by social media for that.
Our successful stars are often beacons of hope. Fans have rushed to buy tabloids to get the inside information on how to make their relationships work like Joost and Amor. Before bookmarks and Pinterest boards, bridezillas took inspiration from weddings televised on Top Billing. And while it has become comical to hear someone pursue a career in rap or house, the viral potential of songs like Jerusalema has proved that unexpected musicians can become global sensations.
Speaking of the dance craze, the vocalist behind the song has traded studio visits for passport checks. Booking more shows overseas than on local shores. It’s no wonder coastal soap Gqeberha featured a storyline where one of its characters foregoes the dutiful ambitions of becoming a cop to chase fame as a singer.
While our social issues may leave us in the dark and dour most of the time, our stars have become a pillar of light. People we can look up to at a time when there is very little for us to celebrate as a nation. South Africans don’t have patriotism, we have gees thanks to the successful sports stars we have produced.
From Springboks to Banyana Banyana and Proteas, there are even viral videos calling for positivity at a national level. It is that same gees that made South African TikTok users go to war with American netizen Simone Umba, who questioned Tyla’s coloured identity this past week.
We can see it in the success of genres such as amapiano and gqom, whose artists like Uncle Waffles, DBN Gogo and Nick Njiba have taken over the US, Europe and Asia respectively.
It’s a wonder our government has not taken advantage of this global domination and capitalised on it the same way that South Korea and others have done. Our stars are not just heroes who remind us we can all succeed but also remind us South Africa is on the precipice of becoming a global hotspot, especially in these dour times.
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