Tutu Puoane

Jazz vocalist Tutu Puoane was born in 1979 in Atteridgeville township and grew up in Mamelodi, Pretoria. She started playing music professionally in 1997 in downtown Johannesburg. In 2001, she finished her vocal studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and accepted an offer from Dutch pianist Jack van Poll to study in Europe to develop her talents. She spent two years at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Netherlands) before moving to Antwerp, Belgium in 2004. That year she won the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award for music.

To date she has released three albums with her European quartet: 'Song' (2007), 'Quiet Now' in 2009, which won a SAMA in 2010 for Best Traditional Jazz album and 'Breathe' in 2012. In 2011 she teamed up with one of Europeʼs best big bands, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, to record 'Mama Africa', a tribute to Miriam Makeba, which again earned Tutu a SAMA for Best Traditional Jazz Album. She has played concerts all over Europe, including Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Luxemburg and Switzerland, as well as New York and New Orleans in the US. Her new album is expected in 2014.