A South African Icon Enters a New Era of Freedom, Joy and Self-Discovery

The celebrated singer-songwriter unveils the third single from her forthcoming album ‘People Power’, offering a sensual, groove-led glimpse into the woman and artist she is becoming.

South African singer, songwriter, actress and storyteller ZOLANI MAHOLA is back with ‘A GOOD TIME’, the third single from her forthcoming album ‘People Power’ – and this time, she is inviting listeners to meet her somewhere entirely new.

Warm, sensual and effortlessly groovy, A GOOD TIME captures the feeling of arriving on the other side of profound change and realising that there is still so much life left to live.

The song began with its chorus, which had been circling in ZOLANI’s mind before she took it into the studio with London-based, Grammy-nominated producer Hannah V, who has produced the forthcoming album. At its centre is a deceptively simple line: “You picked a good time to meet me.”

For ZOLANI, those words carry the weight of a significant personal reckoning.”I felt at the time that I had learned so many lessons on the heels of my separation from my long-time partner, husband and father of my kids,” she explains. “Separation and divorce ask a lot of us, much of what is asked is to examine our part in the dissolution of the relationship.”

Rather than being a song about looking backwards, A GOOD TIME is about what becomes possible when the hard work of looking inward has been done. “I was opening up to life in a new way,” says ZOLANI. “I was thinking how much my next partner will benefit from all of this tough work I’d done in the wake of this latest initiation! Hence this sexy groovy song was born!”

That sense of freedom is also inseparable from a larger transformation in ZOLANI’s artistic life. For 17 years, she was the unmistakable voice of Freshlyground, the pan-African band that became one of South Africa’s most celebrated musical exports. During that time, ZOLANI toured internationally, collaborated with artists such as Stevie Wonder and Hugh Masekela, and performed alongside Shakira on the global FIFA World Cup anthem Waka Waka (This Time for Africa).

Leaving Freshlyground meant more than leaving a band. It meant disentangling herself from an identity she had shared with a group of musicians and collaborators for almost two decades. “My identity shift from being wife to a single lady for the first time in nearly 20 years coincided with me reclaiming my legacy post Freshlyground,” ZOLANI says. “There was also a lot of work to do around that separation – 17 years is a long time to be ‘married’ to a group of people.”

That journey of reclamation is at the heart of ‘People Power’, the album that will follow A GOOD TIME in 2027. Where ‘XhosaNostra’ – the album’s first single, as well its companion piece and second single, ‘AmaXhosa’ – surprised listeners with its Gqom-infused energy and powerful expression of Xhosa identity, A GOOD TIME reveals another colour entirely. Together, the songs make clear that ZOLANI is not attempting to recreate the sound that made her famous. She is expanding the canvas.

“‘XhosaNostra’ was a head-turner for people for sure – I don’t think people saw a Gqom track coming from me!” she says. “There’s a joy in being able to use all of the colours available to us when we paint.” That freedom has always existed within ZOLANI’s musical DNA.

Her work across Freshlyground’s seven albums was famously eclectic, while her subsequent collaborations have taken her into musical spaces alongside artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Sun-El Musician, Karen Zoid, Zakes Bantwini, The Soil, Anton Goosen, Gruff Rhys (renowned Welsh musician best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band, Super Furry Animals), Msaki, Ami Faku and Moonchild Sanelly to name a few.

Now, however, she gets to explore those colours entirely on her own terms: “I get to experiment in a Zolani Mahola way now and that’s a beautiful evolution,” she says. “Not everyone gets to have a second act; I’m very much centre stage here in this second half of the ‘show’.”

For ZOLANI, A GOOD TIME is what her new chapter sounds like: not an attempt to escape her past, but an artist finally able to hold every part of it while continuing to move forward.

A GOOD TIME is another glimpse into ‘People Power’, an album that moves across genres and explores reclamation, identity, collective voice, cultural heritage and the power that emerges when people recognise their own agency. ZOLANI describes the album as an exploration of ‘the harnessing of the individual and collective voice and power’ while celebrating the diversity of genres and cultures that shape South Africa and the wider world.

And while A GOOD TIME may be one of the album’s most joyful moments, it is part of a much larger story. For an artist whose work has always been bound to storytelling, ZOLANI sees the stories we tell – and the voices we choose to amplify – as the thread connecting everything she does, from music and theatre to film, nature and activism.”This album is no different,” she says. “The power of the individual and collective voice is a central thematic storyline that runs all the way from ‘XhosaNostra’ to ‘A Good Time’ and ultimately to the full album ‘People Power’.”

A GOOD TIME is, in many ways, an invitation.

To meet ZOLANI MAHOLA again.

ABOUT ZOLANI MAHOLA

Zolani Mahola is a multi-award-winning South African singer, songwriter, actress and storyteller whose distinctive voice first became known around the world as the lead singer of Freshlyground. During her 17 years with the group, she toured internationally and contributed to seven albums, while Freshlyground’s collaboration with Shakira on Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) brought her voice to a global audience.

Since embarking on her solo journey, ZOLANI has expanded her work across music, theatre, film and storytelling. Her debut solo album ‘Thetha Mama’ won Best Produced Album at the South African Music Awards, while her autobiographical theatre production ‘The One Who Sings’ earned her a Fleur du Cap Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She has also collaborated with internationally renowned artists including Yo-Yo Ma and worked extensively with the SeaChange Project.

‘A Good Time’ follows ‘XhosaNostra’, released in June 2026 and ‘AmaXhosa’ released in September 2026, as ZOLANI’s third release with Virgin Music Group and the latest single from ‘People Power’. The new album is set to continue her exploration of African identity, contemporary global sounds, storytelling and collective power.

PEOPLE POWER, the brand-new album by ZOLANI MAHOLA, is set for release in 2027.