Mbekezeli 1010 – Uthando Ft. Thembani, Sne Ntuli

The title is the Zulu word for love, which is about as wide a subject as a songwriter can pick. It can be the early stage where you smile at your phone like a fool. It can be the long, quiet kind that survives bills, in-laws and bad moods. It can also be the sore kind, where you are still defending somebody who no longer defends you. Because the word covers all of that, the real question is which corner of love the song chooses to stand in.

Two featured voices on one love song is worth noticing. Thembani and Sne Ntuli share the credit, so the record has room for more than one point of view, and love is the one subject where that actually helps. Two people in the same relationship almost never tell the story the same way.

The song comes from the Lawufaka Ilunda album, and a love track in the middle of a project often works as the place where the listener finally gets to breathe.

Whether you are newly in love, long married or nursing something unfinished, Uthando is a subject you will always bring your own story to, and that is exactly why the title works.

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