Hellenberg has a show this weekend with her dear friend Maya Spector at the Raptor Room, 79 Roeland Street in Cape Town on Friday, 22 November from 7.30pm. A classy evening of jazz is to be expected.
I caught up with Hellenberg, last week.
It helps me feel more connected to the deepest purest part of myself and have experiences that are beyond the limits of my ego.
I love singing songs I love. So often, it gives me energy and makes me feel happy.
My voice is definitely famous. People I don’t know have messaged me from all over SA and other countries too, saying they’ve heard my voice on Goldfish’s number one hit song, “This Is How It Goes”, on radio stations.
A bit of both for sure! I wish I could sing with utter and complete humility all the time I sing, but it’s not always valued or required in the different jobs that I do. Ego is sometimes preferred, depending on the job at hand. If it were totally up to me, humility would always come first.
The most memorably humorous moment happened when I sang with an amateur band at an outdoor function in Kuils River many years ago. The band was playing so terribly that it made the male vocalist stop singing because the discordant music led him to laugh uncontrollably.
So I decided to step in to finish the song (“More Than Words” by Extreme). Soon after joining in to sing with the band, I too found myself wanting to laugh, so I thought to myself that I should add some R&B embellishments to try and disguise my “almost” giggles (which at that point had presented themselves not my voice via an unstable, shaky tone).
My father, Derek Adriaan Hellenberg. He is a coloured man who grew up in poverty as one of 13 children in his family during the apartheid era. They had the bare minimum to eat every day, and didn’t even always have proper school shoes.
Yet, he managed to make a success of himself by being one of the first people of colour in Cape Town to study medicine at the University of Cape Town, becoming a general practitioner and opening his own medical practice in a poor community (helping people who had grown up in similar conditions to him) and becoming an associate professor at the University of Cape Town.
My kettle and teabags.
Shiraz/Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc/Tequila Sunrise/Amarula.
It would be amazing to sing in a musical theatre production on Broadway in New York or the West End in London.
I’ve just dyed my hair electric red and I sang the lead vocal part for the iconic South African movie, Fiela Se Kind (2019).
Momo and Nique.
Open up my own tea shop, and hire live performers there.
“Time Is A Healer” by Eva Cassidy. It helped me during my grieving process after my twin sister had passed away.
The ring I bought from Thailand earlier this year. It’s pure silver in the shape of a star.
Enjoy going into the realm that music takes me to whilst singing.
Branching out, working and living overseas.
Poverty and crime in SA.
In a warm indoor Jacuzzi.
That we will all start treating each other with more love and respect.
