Sho Madjozi — John Cena (2019)

Sho Madjozi comes from Shirley village in Limpopo and built her whole catalogue on Xitsonga, xibelani dance and Tsonga visual identity at a time when SA pop was still expected to perform in English. John Cena was a fan letter to a wrestler, and it turned into the most joyful South African export of the decade.

The clip that detonated it was a Tiny Desk performance and a run of SA TikTok and Instagram edits, filmed and re-cut by South Africans faster than any label could plan. Schoolchildren in Giyani, Soweto and Bothaville learned the braids, the skirt and the chorus in the same week. When John Cena responded to her on The Kelly Clarkson Show, SA Twitter treated it as a national result.

It matters in this archive because it proved a South African artist did not have to translate herself. Xitsonga, Limpopo dress and township-shot visuals carried on their own. Across official and SA fan uploads John Cena now clears 95 million views in Mzansi, and it is still the record every young SA artist points to when they refuse to sing in English.