Based:Cape Town
(Singer, Song writer, composer and performer) is a solo artist inspired by Classical music, African music and Jazz. His music is very experimental with a dominating African rooted sound. Every time he is asked what kind of music he does, he fails to answer that question because he feels his music cannot be boxed into one , two or three genres. It is an experiment of soul feeding sounds and his style is best described as avantgarde.
He was classically trained at the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School under the guidance of Doctor Johann Van Der Sandt who was the main conductor of the choir at the time. Odwa Bongo also received training from Rykie Boeke who was the second conductor of the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir.
In 2010 he was awarded “The Best Tenor Soloist” Award and was chosen to represent South Africa in South Korea with the other members of the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir.
After his best years at the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School, Odwa was introduced to Jazz in 2012 and in the same year he was chosen to be the vocalist for the Standard Bank School’s Big Band at the Grahamstown Jazz Festival.
He then completed his matric at the prestigious Bridge House School in 2013 and in 2014 he attended The Rainbow Academy where he flourished greatly in his music. Odwa was awarded the “Best Student of the Year” Award in music and was the top student in his class.
Odwa Bongo achieved his Performance Diploma in African Music at the University of Cape Town, in 2017. He was also a member of 2 bands; the UCT-Ibuyambo (Pan African music ensamble), under the guidance of Dizu Plaatjies and Azanian Aesthetics, a newly formed African music-focused group of 4 young individual artists from the UCT’s African Music department.
In between his studies Odwa performed around Cape Town’s finest clubs and festivals and occasionally went out of the country, representing Cape Town talent, to collaborate with other artists of Framewalk (a German youth programme focussed on creating music, dance and theatre).
Currently Odwa has released one single, Confused, and it was chosen as the BEST SUBMISION in 2017 amongst other great independent artists. Odwa Bongo has also had the opportunity to work.
