Shishani

Shishani is a talented singer-songwriter loved for her smooth and powerful voice. Her roots are Namibian and Belgian in origin, but she grew up mainly in the Netherlands. In her work she bring these worlds together. Her vocal style has been influenced by Afro-American and African music traditions, giving her a truly unique sound. Her music is comforting and has a thread of strong social consciousness running through it.

Her song “Minority” garnered two nominations at the Namibian Annual Music Awards (2012). She has also been credited with a host of awards, both locally and internationally including winner of "Last Band Standing" (Namibia, 2012) & singer-songwriter competition "Mooie Noten" (Netherlands, 2013). She was a finalist in the prestigious Radio France International Discovery Awards (2014).

A year later, Shishani joined forces with percussionist-producer Sjahin During and together created “Namibian Tales”, an Amsterdam-based acoustic quartet diving into the musical traditions of Namibia. In 2016, the quartet won Best World Music Album from Netherlands with their debut album "Itaala" and they have been touring internationally since. In June 2017, the group traveled to the Kalahari desert to collaborate with four women from the Ju'/Hoansi San (“Bushmen”) community in Namibia. Together they’ve performed and recorded a live album "Kalahari Encounters" that won Best World Music Album produced in Netherlands 2017. The Namibian Tales quartet has toured worldwide including Namibia, Germany, Switzerland, Jordan, China & Morocco.

During her solo career, Shishani has performed internationally at events such as: Glastonbury Festival UK, Lake of Stars Malawi and in numerous other countries including France, Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland, Greece, Italy, India, Kenya and South Africa, besides her home countries: Netherlands, Belgium and Namibia.

Shishani has also spearheaded various arts initiatives in Namibia focusing on social upliftment. She is a founder of ARTNAM; advocating for the promotion of Namibian arts nationally and internationally. She is also researcher at the Ngoma Research Collective based in Namibia.

In her work as an anthropologist (BA) & musicologist (MA) she has specialised in contemporary urban Namibian music. She has written on this topic for the Bloomsbury Encyclopeadia of Contemporary Music of the World, Music in Africa, and most recently the book The Changing Faces of Aawambo Music Arts was launched. Together with the Namibian Tales quartet, Shishani is collaborating with UNESCO and the Museums Association of Namibia on safeguarding cultural heritage through archiving and producing new music in collaboration with San communities in Namibia.

Shishani means ‘crown’ in Oshiwambo, one of Namibia's native languages.