Jamali (band)

Jamali is a South African female musical group. The members are Jacqui Carpede, Mariechan Luiters and Liesl Penniken. The band was formed on the TV show Coca-Cola Popstars.^[1] Their name is from the first two letters of each of their names. Jamali was the runner-up to the boy band Ghetto Lingo. Although Ghetto Lingo was the winners of Popstars, Jamali has outsold Ghetto Lingo in terms of popularity and TV appearances.

Career

Jamali; Formation And Debut (2004-2005)

Emerging, like their male counterpart, Ghetto Lingo, out of the 2004 Coca-Cola Popstars talent search contest, Liesl Penniken, Mariechan Luiters, and Jacqui Carpede made their début on South Africa’s airwaves with their first radio single “Greatest Love”. It’s the lead single off Jamali’s self-titled album, which was recorded at CSR Studiois in Johannesburg. The album was certified gold for sales in excess of 25 000. The album produced the huge hit singles ‘Greatest Love’, 'Love Me for Me’ and ‘Dalile’

Jacqui: “It’s been the most incredible experience! Obviously Popstars was hard work and not knowing whether you were going to make it, made it that much more difficult. But now we are a group, working together with our producers to create an album for people to love and listen to, it becomes all that more real for all of us and I think you can feel that spirit in the music.” “It’s been fabulous,” says Liesl. “Exhausting too because we have had to record this album in a short space of time and do it with all the commitment and quality that you find in any other recording, but it’s been more than worth it.”^[2] “We wanted this to be a global album that is also proudly South African,” says Mariechan. “For instance, when we worked with D-Rex we said to him that we wanted the music to be instantly recognizable as South African and his experience as a kwaito producer enabled us to really make that happen.”

Yours Fatally (2006-2007)

‘Yours Fatally’, the first single from Jamali’s 2nd album was also the name for the new album, which was recorded at CSR Studios in Johannesburg. In this album they co-wrote 7 songs and were nominated for a SAMA award but sadly did not win the award. Their voices grew more for the better. This was the most touching album and had two follow up hits "Maisha" and "Secrets" which both made the band more respected and loved.^[3]

3rd Base

First single, “Knowing Me Knowing You” has already been played on Highveld (HIGH ROTATION) and several other radio stations.

Jamali’s third album features production from D-Rex as well as George Vardas who co-produced the group’s self-titled 2004 debut and its 2006 follow-up, ‘Yours Fatally’. A few songs were released as singles and they circulated Chart shows around South African Radios. Their Second single, "A Little Obsessed" did very well, followed by "Maybe" the powerful ballad as third single and their last and final single released was "Love At First Sight". promotional songs were released but they were not marketed, songs include, "Skud Julle Lywe" and "A Girl Like Me" (which is now making rounds in the UK)as a lead single for their Greatest Hits Album.

Toxic Candy

'Toxic candy' TC for short is Jamali's 4th Studio album that was released in 2011. The girls went independent this time around and put all their sweat, blood and tears in this album. The girls had creative freedom and had lots of fun in making this album. Toxic Candy is somewhat different from what Jamali is known for. this time, the girls show two sides of Jamali, the sweet, the lovely, the beautiful CANDY side and the HIP, the edgy (yet still beautiful) Toxic side. Toxic is more dance and high tempo sounds, while Candy is the innocent, sweet Ballads. Jamali wrote 11 out of 14 songs. Sampled "Shirley Browns" woman to woman. They release most of the tracks on the album, "Mzansi" the track released for the 2010 soccer world cup, I like it, Incurable (which peaked in the top 20 on Highveld Top40)and "Cant Get Enough" which was number 1 in the Western Cape radio stations. Lots of promotional single were released, including Jati (ft Pro and JR), Free, I wanna Kiss You and Heaven.

Before the album release, a song title "Time Is On My side" a cover of The Rolling Stone song was released or leaked but never made it in the album.

DVDs

A special edition DVD of Jamali’s album Yours Fatally was released.

• 1. Music Videos:
  • a. Love me for me
  • b. Yours Fatally
  • c. Maisha
  • d. Secrets
• 2. Jamali Live
  • a. Love me for me
  • b. Maisha
  • c. Secrets
• 3. Shout Outs from fans

Controversy

Jamali’s song "Maisha" was the subject a scandal. It was alleged that Jamali stole the song from popular Kenyan musician Nameless. However Jamali released their CD/DVD of Yours Fatally and credited Nameless as one of the writers of "Maisha".^[4]

References

External links

• Official website
• Jamali lyrics, audio, info