Tankiso Mamabolo

Born in Matatiele and raised in Mthatha, Tankiso Mamabolo is an independent South African songwriter, composer and singer.

Having been trained in theatre and musical theatre at The University Of Cape Town, she has been performing her own compositions since 2018. Tankiso has collaborated with a number of musicians and instrumentalists and her music deals with societal and identity issues, love, loss and memory. She often incorporates imagery, story telling and poetry in her performances and has written and performed in seSotho, isiXhosa and in English. Her work has included collaborating with Cape Town based band, Sweet Chillie and her first independently produced album, 'Freedom Hurts Sometimes' was digitally released to positive reviews in April of 2020.

Tankiso also performed on the television shows Afternoon express (Available on Youtube) and has written, directed and produced her solo live show, 'Tankiso Live: The Audacity To be' which ran at the Baxter theatre in August 2019 and at The V&A Waterfront Amphitheatre in February or 2020.

In 2020, Tankiso collaborated with new online streaming platform, SATOD (South African Theatre On Demand) to stream the show 'Tankiso Live: The Audacity to be' and In 2022, she performed at the SummerHill Wine farm as an opening act for beloved fellow musician Mandisis Dyantyis. That same year, she was appointed the first music resident at the black run and boundary breaking Greatmore Studios Trust, where she uses the space to collaborate with and create relationships with other young, black musicians in Cape Town.

Tankiso is currently working on her second album which will be released in 2022.