South African singer, Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty model and Afrobeat fan talks about her mission to popularise the musical genre in Hong Kong
- Londiwe Ngubeni, known as MsLolo, started out singing in a gospel group in Durban, South Africa, and got a role in The Lion King at Hong Kong Disneyland in 2008
- After that role, she stayed on in Hong Kong, where she still performs and champions Afrobeat, including with her debut album A Different Breed
In 2000, Londiwe Ngubeni had a vivid dream.
“I saw a big home with stone bricks, like a Scottish castle,” says the South African-born, Hong Kong-based recording artist. But getting to it was difficult. “I had to climb down a sheer cliff and cross a river.”
Ngubeni – better known by her stage name MsLolo – believes the dream was a message sent from God to help her cope with the sudden death of her mother. “He was showing me what life could be like and the obstacles I had to overcome on my way to success.”
It’s not surprising that MsLolo has faith in self-fulfilling prophecy, a belief that things happen because you say they will happen. “I visualise what I want, I write it down, I create a mood board and I say it out loud … I don’t make a plan B because I don’t want to jinx plan A.”
It seems to be working. MsLolo landed in Hong Kong in 2008 to play Rafiki – “the wise shaman” – in Disneyland’s The Lion King stage show based on the 1994 animation.