South African singer-songwriter Azana entered 2020 with the intention of making a bold entrée, capped off with the release of her debut album, Ingoma—a mission that was all but brought to a standstill as the COVID-19 pandemic raged. “I couldn’t perform for the first year,” she tells Apple Music. “Even when COVID was over, it was very hard picking up the momentum that we had lost. It took some time for me to have a social media presence and say, ‘This is Azana, and this is the face behind the music.’” Yet her efforts bore fruit: Azana’s breakthrough single, “Your Love,” would go on to reach double-platinum status, and Ingoma later nabbed several SAMA nominations. Three years on—and following collaborations that melded her Afropop sounds with house, amapiano, and gqom—Azana explores the full breadth of her personality and musicality on her 2023 album. IGAGU is equal parts a vehicle for self-actualization and a reintroduction to an artist who was destined for a place at center stage. “IGAGU is a Zulu word meaning ‘a person who sings first, or who dances first, with confidence,’” Azana explains. “The leader of the choir, or the soloist, is igagu. Growing up, I was that kid who sang first; my mom used to call me igagu. When I was [working on this record], I felt like I was alone. It was a very emotional time for me, and it was a time for me to express myself and believe in myself. I gained a lot of independence and confidence from this album—I became Igagu.” Read on as Azana (Makhosazana Masango) talks us through the album, track by track. “Kunzima Egoli” “When we dropped my first album, it was COVID. It was my first year of being an artist, so I thought it was going to be a ball. The COVID situation came with so much disappointment. I had to face reality and face certain things. When I say ‘Kunzima Egoli,’ it means that ‘it’s hard in Johannesburg.’ I speak as if I’m talking [about] a lover, saying this person has treated me so badly, and I’m going back home because it’s so hard in Johannesburg—but really, I’m talking about my career. I did this song with Taffy Da Don, the same person who produced ‘Your Love.’ I had come from Bloemfontein, and I didn’t have a place to stay even, so I slept on his couch so that we could write.” “Awusasho” (feat. Trigmatic) “‘Awusasho’ is a song that I did with a Ghanaian artist, Trigmatic. He has a very beautiful voice, and I think what I love most about him is his songwriting. Here, I talk about where a person you once really loved disappoints you, and in some cases, some people leave. So, I’m saying, ‘Why don’t you stay when you leave? Because I thought that we were OK, but now your actions don’t show that. So, you’re turning against me.’” “Sifanelene” [Azana & Mthunzi] “‘Sifanelene’ means that we are meant for each other. We look good together, and we are suited. I did this with Mthunzi. There was just a lot of people in studio—it was just a ball of good energy, and the song was done in less than an hour. With this song, I visualize being really in love. I tell the person, ‘I’ve been all around the world, but I haven’t met someone like you. I’ve lost myself. I’ve found myself again. I’ve been through so much. So, it surprises me that I can finally meet and be with someone like you.’ A lot of people have played this at weddings.” “Never the Same” “This is one of the most emotional songs. It talks about believing that things are going to change for the better. I speak as if everything that I’ve ever wanted in my life has happened, and I’m fulfilled, and I’m grateful for everything that has happened because all my dreams have come true. But in that time when I was writing it, that’s not necessarily how I felt. But instead of writing like you’re always asking for things in music, you can also just write like everything has happened and be in your delusion, and maybe manifesting things like that will make it easier to happen in real life. So, I spoke as if I’m the happiest girl in the world. Things will never be the same because now I’m flying high.” “Shona Malanga” (feat. Amahle) “Amahle was the perfect person to do the song with because she embodies such a cute girly energy, and this song is exactly that. When people feel in love, they’re like, ‘I’m in my Azana era,’ because my music is about the ’lulus. So, this song is ‘Delulu is the solulu,’ where a girl is like, ‘I know that you would never do me any wrong, and I love you so much, and this is the best I’ve ever felt in my life. I love this guy.’ So, it’s a girl in love.” “Amaphiko Ezono” “There’s different versions of the song. I played it for Prince Kaybee once, and he loved it so much, so he made his own version of it. So, people know the lyrics, but they don't know this version. This version has more of an Afropop and Afrotech sound mixed together. I think this is one of the best songs I’ve ever written in my life because I didn’t try and rhyme. I literally just came, and I set my heart out without stressing about if these words go together. It was just me expressing how I feel. And it’s a girl who is so disappointed because she was so in love with this guy, and the guy has done so many things that have disappointed her. So, now she has reached her limit and she’s like, ‘I can’t take it anymore. I’ve tried it all. I’ve tried to let you see that I’m the girl for you. I’ve tried to downplay all the things that you’ve done to me, but really now I realize that you’re never going to change for me, and we’re never going to work out. So, we’ll see where you go. I’m setting you free. Like a bird, fly high. And I will remain here and try and love myself more and find myself.’ And the title means ‘wings of sin’—so, really, I’m calling him a devil.” “Zalabantu” “‘Zalabantu’ fuses Maskandi and Afropop. Here, the girl is praising the man that she has chosen because he has come with the promise that he’s going to send his uncles to go pay lobola [‘dowry’ or ‘bride price’] for the girl, which is what we do in our culture. When you go pay lobola, there’s something that you have to pay first at the gate [of the bride’s family home], called imvulamlomo. [That process] is saying that my family and yours can now negotiate. Here, I say [the groom’s family] has to pay R2 million. And so, so many men were impressed by that, and they’re like, ‘I have to work hard for Azana so I can be able to pay R2 million for imvulamlomo.’ So, the song is about a girl just knowing her worth and feeling good about herself: ‘If you want me, you have to work hard. You have to pay the lobola. You have to take me seriously.’” “Goodbye” [Azana & Disciples of House] “I actually wrote this song the last day of school at Westville Girls. And I was saying, ‘The time has come for us to go our separate ways,’ talking about my relationships with my teachers, with the choir that I was in, with everything that was going on around me. A year after that, I had the opportunity to [record this] with Disciples of House. Whenever you have to go your separate ways with someone, it’s because the time for that season to come has come. So, it’s just me accepting that things don’t last forever, and sometimes people are there for a season.” “Uthando Lukamama” “‘Uthando Lukamama’ is a song about how unconditional a mother’s love is. My mother has never wanted to benefit anything from me. She has always wanted the best for me. In fact, she always wanted me to be better than her. And I think that love comes from no one but a mother. So, this is a song appreciating her. And I tell her not to look at me as an angel, because I’m going to do wrong things sometimes. But she must know that I appreciate and love her, and I’ll always strive to make her proud.” “End of Time” “This song really does sound like when you’re watching a movie, and it ends off at a high, when whatever was supposed to happen that was good finally happens. It’s very high energy. It says, ‘I will forever love you, no matter what happens in our lives. Just know that I will always be there for you, and I will always love you.’ It makes me feel safe. If someone was to tell you, ‘I’ll love you till the end of time,’ and they show it through their actions, it's a very happy ending.”