While it’s seldom that one find artists honouring other artists, that’s exactly what the award-winning music duo of Bongi & Collin have set out to do.
In what is marked as the beginning of a series of events to honour legends in the creative industry, Bongi & Collin held an event simply titled “It’s Legendary”. Supported by the National Arts Council and Department of Arts and Culture through its PESP funding, the inaugural event saw four legends in the music industry being honoured. The four were Dr Vusi Mahlasela, Mahotella Queens, Dr Yvonne Chakachaka and Bishop Benjamin Dube. This was done via a Gala black tie event held at BMW in Menlyn Pretoria on the 8th of March 2023. Several other brands also came onboard to support the initiative. These included BMW, Graham Beck and BAM Telecoms. According to the duo, the coming onboard by these additional major brands signals the importance of the project, and is testimony to the fact that it is a step in the right direction.
The initiative was inspired by the team seeing creative legends often not recognised or honoured by their own countries when still alive. While the trend in other countries is often the opposite, locally we tended to only recognise legends when they have left us. And if history is anything to go by, others even pass away under harsh economic conditions and which is rather sad. The duo hope to change this by honouring the legends, showcasing the enormous contribution they have done to the industry and society as a whole, and rallying brands to come onboard to support this, with the hope that some will even go a step further to support the legends in their own personal capacity.
The selected honourees for the introductory event were taken from a pool of many deserving individuals, who are set to also be honoured in the future.
