With a history of hits and collaborations that showcase her rich commanding vocals and powerful storytelling, singer, rapper, DJ and amapiano sensation Lady Du leans into the personal and the spiritual on her debut LP. “My songwriting has always been personal stories,” Lady Du tells Apple Music. “It's always the experience of life, what people go through, what I go through. My lyrical content is positive—‘let’s teach people something’—and have fun at the same time. I can do anything. But my sound right now is more Africanism—trying to get back our power. And through music, you can [inspire] change.” Across its 20 tracks, Song Is Queen reflects Lady Du’s desire to place the music and the message above the ego. “A lot of people have been saying, 'Ah, Lady Du is this queen of piano; Boohle’s the queen of piano; Sha Sha's the queen of piano.’,” she explains. “I'm like—there’s only one of you. You can be the queen of whatever that you want to be. But at the end of the day, the song is the queen. There's nobody that can do your job the way that you do it. But let's not put titles to [people], because then it brings up competition for unnecessary reasons.” That ideology is a by-product of what the artist born Dudu Ngwenya loves about amapiano as a genre—and a culture. “We are not just vocalists or artists,” she explains; “We become family. Which is why I support everybody. It's such a great time for any human being to be part of this experience, and I think it has given women more attention. With ’piano, you can literally just today start something and tomorrow you're the biggest artist. I think it's the greatest genre to have as a country.” Here, Lady Du breaks down key tracks from the album. “Oyini” (feat. Siyakha Khita & T-Man SA) [Lady Du & Reekado Banks] “I collaborated with a gospel artist who’s never [done] amapiano, Siyakha Khita. And I met Reekado Banks when we were doing the remix for ‘Ozumba’ and then something tragic happened to him, where he lost his mother. [We were all] going through something, and I said, 'You know what? Let's just make this song about our personal experience.’ So it's more of a song that's actually questioning, 'Are my prayers being answered?' And it's just a message from our hearts to the universe.” “Vukani MaAfrica” (feat. T-Man SA [Lady Du & Yemi Alade] “That's my favourite song. It literally says, 'Wake up black child/wake up child that has been through a lot’. Wake up, African child more than anything, because there's a lot that's happening around Africa. We go through a lot emotionally; mentally. We just need to wake up. We need to be the ones that hold each other to get to the other side, where everything happens the right way. Let's look at each other and see the power within each other, instead of looking at somebody outside. I look up to our African people who I've been around, and who bring light to everybody. I think Yemi Alade represents the same thing, and she is the sweetest human being I've ever met.” “Kwakhanya” (feat. Tee Jay & JonTy)[Lady Du & Pabi Cooper] “So ‘Kwakhanya’ was when things started coming together—it’s when I started seeing the light. Things opened up for me when people thought they could destroy me. So even the song when it starts, it says, 'People try to destroy me, but look at me now. Things opened up,' and it's just life in general. Just because you are not assigned to a record label and you don't do things like everybody else, then you become the enemy because you're trying to teach the other kids not to go for the major labels. [But] if I can do it, that should tell you something. That's why I get confidently to tell people that, 'Please don't start a thing, because you and me are on the same level and I own myself’.” “Jomo” (feat. T-Man SA) “A lady sent me an email, saying she's been a prostitute for five years and she wants to leave it, but the people that she's been working for are giving her problems, so she wants to use social media as a platform. And I said, 'Social media's actually going to dent you as a human being. Let us rather launch an investigation, and get you out of it.' Luckily, we were successful and I said to her, 'I am actually going to write a song, and raise awareness of your story, but I don't want to put a face to it because then people shame you.’ Let me use my platform to assist financially and mentally—and now she actually has her own shop. ‘Jomo’ is a man that takes advantage of the fact that a woman doesn't have money, and they use money to lure them into getting whatever they want. But the problem here is Jomo, not the girl, because she's in desperate need of money. It's actually raising awareness to say, 'But men, why are you taking advantage of females that need money’? Instead of just saying, ‘What do you need assistance with? Can I assist you?’ If it builds up to be a relationship in the long run, then let it be out of love and respect, not out of desperation for money.” “Wishy Wishy” [Lady Du, Okmalumkoolkat & DJ Riley] “My plan with ‘Wishy Wish’y is to just tell people that regardless of what happens, I'm always going to look after my family. I’ve upgraded my life, but I haven't upgraded my life to make myself better, I've upgraded my life to make my family better. So it's making your experience of life fun, and just teaching people how to value people, instead of treating them as celebrities. I don't want to love you because you're [famous], I want to know who you are. Those are the type of relationships I want.” “Boyzin” [Lady Du, Cassper Nyovest & DJ Riley] “It’s s a song that looks at how people abuse drugs, and what it has done to our boys. It’s saying, ‘Look at yourself in a better light. You can be whatever that you want to be if you put your mind into it’. Because sometimes men go through stuff that they don't want to talk about. So it's more of a song that advocates for men, to say, ‘You have the power to be anything’. We don't want to see the youth smoking drugs, we want to see them do a lot of things that are positive. Cassper killed it, and I chose him because I knew he's literally that ‘Black child, it's possible’ type of artist. He’s an advocate for men.” “Dikeledi” [Lady Du & Bustsa 929] “‘Dikeledi’ is such a personal song—it’s my mom's name. It says, 'Wipe your tears in any situation that you are in.' So every struggle my mom has been through, I actually put it on the song. It was a dedication to my mom. I didn't really grow up around my mom, so there was a space and a gap for my mom, and I started having a relationship with her [in 2022], so I put it in a song. And I was like, 'Your tears don't fall on the ground, but the universe hears your cry.' Whatever that we were struggling with, the universe was able to [bring us together] so that I can have a relationship with you. Anything taken away from you can be brought together again.” “God Saved Me” [Lady Du & Bassie] “In 2021, I tried to commit suicide. The song is a message to say, ‘Thank you for saving me’. I'm thankful that I'm here, and I'm going to teach people to not go through that. It was a lesson to say, ‘Don't be a coward. Don't run away from your problems. Face them, because you never know that that's actually the peak time of your success.’ Now that I've experienced it, I [make a point to] look after every artist that is out there. When I even see one sign of something that they write, on their WhatsApp or their socials, I will be the first one to go check up on them. 'Are you okay? What's going on?' Because I've experienced it and I know what it does to a person. So I think it's me saying thank you to God for saving my life.” “Peace Magents” (feat. Busta 929) “‘Peace Magents’ is a dedication to Mpura and Killer Kau. ‘Peace Magents’ is like ‘RIP’. It's a very touching song because I recorded it the same day they passed on, and the emotions in the song are real. The crying on the song is real. There's nothing that was edited on the song. Everything that is there, it's my genuine feelings. It’s a dedication to Mpura and Killer Kau. We spent a whole month on camp recording Killer Kau's album. And then just when he finishes it and then he passes on. So it was just a tragedy.”