A South African singer just became a hit on Chinese reality TV

A fortnight ago, Motswedi Modiba was a South African singer showing signs of a promising career in her home country.

Now she’s a breakout hit on one of China’s largest reality TV shows after wowing millions with her performance in Mandarin.

Modiba, reported to be the first Black and African contestant on “Sing! China,” impressed the judges with her cover of the ballad “Love” by Karen Mok.

The competition, in its eighth season, follows a similar format to “The Voice” in the US, with the first round judged blind. Two of the four judges selected Modiba to progress to the next round, forcing the singer to pick one as a mentor for the latter stage of the competition (she chose singer, rapper and actor Wilber Pan.)

The singer lit up Chinese social media: “How could Motswedi sing so well?” wrote music blogger Radio Utopia to their 11.8 million followers on Weibo, while the hashtag “I cannot compete with Motswedi” trended in reference to a quote from competition judge Joker Xue.

Not bad for what started as a joke on TikTok.

Life has come at Modiba fast – but behind the headlines are years of hard work.

Born in Tshwane, South Africa, the 26-year-old told CNN her parents sent her to Pretoria Chinese School, where she learned Mandarin from age six to 18. (“They looked at world trends and saw China was probably going to become an important world player economically, so wanted to give us the best opportunities in life,” she explained.)

In high school, Modiba entered an international language contest called the Chinese Bridge Competitionwinning the national category, and says she earned a scholarship to study Chinese language and literature at Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, China.

As a child she had performed on the recording of song “Baba Wethu” by South African gospel artist Tebs David, and at university in China she entered small-scale singing competitions, singing in Mandarin. In 2022 she launched a career in South Africa as MOE. with single “It Was A Vibe,” winning a Metro FM Music Award.

A fortnight ago, Motswedi Modiba was a South African singer showing signs of a promising career in her home country. Now she’s a breakout hit on one of China’s largest reality TV shows after wowing millions with her performance in Mandarin. Modiba, reported to be the first Black and African contestant on “Sing! China,” impressed the…

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