“When You’re the 1st to Do Something”: Thandi Draai on Breaking Into a Male Dominated Music Industry

• South African artist Thandi Draai has come a long way in the Mzansi music game and is making a lasting mark
• The stunning musician is the first woman in Mzansi to make her own self-made EP and has inspired many
• Thandi hopes to help other women know their power and to motivate them to dive right in and make their name known

South African music producer, songwriter, vocalist and DJ Thandi Draai has made her mark in the Mzansi music industry and opened doors to women that were shut closed before she came along.

Thandi is known for the fact that she is the first woman in Mzansi to make her own self-made EP, a huge milestone for SA women in the music industry.

Speaking to Sowetan LIVE, the ambitious artist explained how making the EP came with a lot of disbelief from many and required her to have a lot of trust in herself and the process.

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“You know, when you’re the first to do something, it’s very scary because you don’t have a reference. There wasn’t a woman in SA that I could reference.

“Even to this day I do a lot of things that I think where as a black woman in SA, we are still conservative. Even the amount of guts you have to have to do something that hasn’t been done before. It was a nerve-wracking experience but I also enjoyed it.”

Being the fearlessly outspoken woman that she is, Thandi is doing the most to break barriers. The Mzansi music scene was very much male-dominated for a long time and women like Thandi are changing that one major move at a time.

Thandi is loving seeing the movement in the music industry and how women are slowly but surely standing up for themselves and smashing the gender stigmas.

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She does believe there is still a long way to go though and hopes that her story will inspire other women to take risks and trust in themselves.

“We need a lot more people to realise that they can do it. We need to put ourselves in more spaces where we can be empowering ourselves and empower each other. We just need to form that kind of society because the music industry is male-dominated.”

Meet Thobekile Ndlovu, a woman who is making millions in a male-dominated industry

In related news, Briefly News previously reported that every now and then a woman comes along and teaches men a lesson in an industry that is dominated by males.

And Thobekile Ndlovu is one of those women- just two years after graduating while running her own interior design consultancy, she began studying towards a qualification in advanced project management.

Within just 10 years, Ndlovu walked away with the award of best women in construction in her respective province and she was even featured in Top Billing, where the beautiful home she built herself was shown.

Source: Briefly News