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What Fuels The Inspiration Behind Your Favourite Artists?

What drives creativity? What fuels inspiration? What motivates South African artists, musicians, and designers to create and share their music, art and fashion with the world? At the beginning of June, a new online streaming series launched with the aim of answering these questions.

Dubbed a “Festival of Inspiration”, Vuse Inspired Live is a one-of-a-kind platform that features no less than 40 interviews and exclusive performances from well-known and burgeoning artists across music, fashion, travel, art, and customisation.

This limited four-part streamed event will come to an end on 31 July 2021. With hours of incredible content to explore and enjoy, you can’t miss this never-to-be-seen-again series. Vuse Inspired Live is free to stream, on any device, all this month.

Guided by hosts Siya Metane (Slikour), Nina Hastie, Scoop Makhathini and Smash Afrika, the curated line-up across four “Cubes of Inspiration” talk about their journeys to success, the hardships, and most importantly, what fuels their inspiration.

Shekhinah Donnell Being Interviewed By Slikour (From-Left-To-Right)
Shekhinah Donnell being interviewed by Slikour (from-left-to-right)

When asked by Siya Metane what inspires her to create the music she does, Shekhinah said: “The thing that keeps me going is that I am still alive. If I am still breathing, I do not feel like there is anything else that I want to do. Every day that I wake up, I am like aweh, let us work on this music thing however it transpires – it is just where I am home.

Muzi On Vuse Inspired Live.
Muzi on Vuse Inspired Live.

Musician and father, Muzi, when asked the same question, said: “Musically (my inspiration) comes from just living my life. The more adventurous I become (with living my life) the better the music starts sounding, the more stories to tell. Being a father for the last three years has me just putting my daughter’s voice notes in all the songs, because that’s my life and that’s what inspires me to make the music.

Kwesta Performing On The Stage Of Vuse Inspired Live.
Kwesta performing on the stage of Vuse Inspired Live.

When asked the same question, whilst speaking to Siya about his new album ‘G.O.D. Guluva’, Kwesta said he was inspired by the energy of his collaborators. “What inspires me generally, is the energy of other individuals that I collaborate with on a song/album. Their energy it what inspires my writing of songs.

Big Zulu And Mduduzi (From-Left-To-Right) On Stage At Vuse Inspired Live Performing ‘Inhlupheko’
Big Zulu and Mduduzi (from-left-to-right) on stage at Vuse Inspired Live performing ‘Inhlupheko’

Arguably one of South Africa’s biggest artist right now, Big Zulu said that his inspiration comes from his upbringing. “The inspiration behind my music comes from my history. Where I come from (Bergville) and how I was raised. Every time I write a song or perform on stage, it is inspired by where I come from, remembering that and where I want to be going forward.

That Damn Vandal Standing Alongside His Art Piece (Which You Can Win) Inspired By A Durban Local Artist, On Set At Vuse Inspired Live.
That Damn Vandal standing alongside his art piece (which you can win) inspired by a Durban local artist, on set at Vuse Inspired Live.

Speaking to Scoop Makhathini, Durban’s That Damn Vandal (Shaun Oakley) spoke about how he draws inspiration from the energy of city. “Very often (I get my inspiration) from moving around from city to city. You often see the different styles and variety from people in different cities (such as Durban and Johannesburg). I also take a lot of inspiration from photography and patterns.”.

Pierre Johnson Speaking To Smash Afrika On Set At Vuse Inspired Live.
Pierre Johnson speaking to Smash Afrika on set at Vuse Inspired Live.

Cape Town’s Pierre Johnson, who was born on the Cape Flats, touched on how he is inspired by everything around him: “Everything (inspires me). Conversations. Life. I was born and bred on the Cape Flats, an environment like that is not set up for artists and creatives to really thrive. So, each day I am inspired by my past to keep going and do what I do.

Experience these and many more artists and their stories and performances, for free, all at www.VuseInspiredLive.com. You need to be 18 and older to register and stream the content.

In addition to giving these amazing artists a platform to express themselves during these financially difficult times, Vuse Inspired Live encourages audiences to watch as many streams as possible to keep the local live events and entertainment industry going.

#WatchOurStreams to help keep riggers, caterers, camera operators, makeup artists, sound mixers, runners, security guards, cleaners and many more working.

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