Interview with Toya Delazy, The South African Girl Who Wants To Climb UK Charts

Have you ever heard about Toya Delazy? Her song “London Town” has been 7 weeks at the third place in the top UK club chart and we are waiting for the video which will be released in two weeks!

“London Town” is the second single from Toya’s last independent album “Uncommodified”. A new dance remix of the song has been created by the producer Wes My Meds. Awesome athlete Candide Thovex also used her song in a fantastic video where we can see him ski on the Great Wall in China or on mountains free of snow.

Latoya Buthelezi is a 28 years old pianist, producer, rapper and singer-songwriter from Durban, South Africa who is based in East London. Her music is a blend of Jazz, Electro and Hip-Hop, a genre that she calls “JEHP”. She released two albums under Sony Music Africa, “Due Drop” in April 2012 and “Ascension” in 2014, then she moved to London and started her own record label: Delazy Entertainment. She sporadically released new tracks online like “Diamonds in the Rough” and “Nu High”, to finally releasing her 16 track, third album “Uncommodified” in December 2017.

Toya is a multidisciplinary performer.  In 2017 she became a Unicef Africa Ambassador and collaborated on a girl power charged video for the self-produced Khula Khula that globally trended on Twitter for 24h. Toya is also the voice of the 4th “PowerPuff Girl” (Bliss) in Africa on Cartoon Network and she has also been the Voice coach on “The Voice South Africa”.

Toya has won lots of awards such as Best Newcomer, Best Pop Album and Best Produced with “Due Drop”, at the South Africa Music Awards 2013; and the award as Best International Song with “Forbidden Fruit” at Out Music Awards 2016 in NYC. Now in the UK, she has been nominated as rising star at the DIVA awards 2018.

The determined and talented girl is trying to climb UK chart with her EP available on Spotify and Apple Music. Britznbeatz caught up with Toya to talks about her plans:

​​Are you satisfied with the success of “London Town Remix”? When will the new music video be released?
Yes!!!! The video will be released in about 2 weeks.

How was “London Town” born and what is its meaning?
It was born in the moment of realising I can get through the city and make the dream work. It’s less about the location but the London culture and mentality of hustling and moving around the city to make things happen.

Is it difficult to be the creator and the producer of your own music? Tell us about your record label
It’s difficult if you have to mix your own tracks too because after a while everything just sounds like a blur, so I learnt to not get invested with the mixing if I have also produced the track.

What are the differences between the music industry in South Africa and in the UK?
In South Africa, I am well known so it’s easier for people to work with me because they know my brand well, in the UK I’m still breaking into the industry so everyone is still getting to discover me.

What was it like being a coach for The Voice South Africa?
It was an uplifting experience and learnt a lot behind the scenes about how these gigantic shows run, it doesn’t get bigger than being a coach on one of the biggest music competitions in the world.

You seem a confident and determined artist, what are the elements that inspire yourself and your songs?
It’s all about empowerment and positivity – making music that makes me feel good, connecting with good producers and creating vibes.

How important is for you to be a Unicef Ambassador?
It’s powerful as a young Zulu gal, I can help initiate some cool projects that can really make a difference to young people lives in my community and continent, it’s important for other girls to see this and know that this is possible, it doesn’t end in the kitchen honey.

What are your plans for the future?
You gonna have to keep in touch so that you can see what happens 🙂

So press play and listen to Toya Delazy’s album!