Lungisa Xhamela: It's hard to celebrate my album while I'm still mourning Thami Shobede

It's nearly a month since Idols SA finalist Thami Shobede died and Lungisa Xhamela is still struggling to come to terms with his friend's death.

Thami died at Kalafong Hospital in Pretoria on September 12. 

Thami and Lungisa formed a strong bond as contestants on Idols SA three years ago and in the hours after Thami's death Lungisa told TshisaLIVE that he was “shocked and gutted” by the news.

Lungisa recently dropped his album My Heart to Your Soul but made no noise about it. He told TshisaLIVE earlier this week that the relative silence was intentional, so he could allow people time and space to mourn Thami.

“The last few weeks have been tough. We did not expect it. Nobody saw it coming. Even as we speak, I struggle to believe that he is gone. It's hard to celebrate my album while I'm still mourning. I also felt bad promoting new music when his family and friends are still mourning.”

Lungisa said that he had thought a lot about his friend and believed Thami would have wanted him to celebrate the album and so he was now ready to talk about it.

“Times passes and things need to be done. He would have wanted me to move on and celebrate this album.”

He described the album as something different to what has been done before.

"It took a long time to work on my sound and my brand. This is the time when I am introducing myself to SA all over again. This is a project that is different, that is showing SA something new.”