By Mthabisi Tshuma
House songstress Novuyo Seagirl opened up on how she battled depression at the start of the initial 21-day lockdown in March last year.
The arts sector was plunged into darkness last year when the national lockdown came into effect and all shows were banned.
This meant that the major source of income for most artistes had been closed making it difficult for artistes to fend for themselves.
It was only later that show promoters organised virtual shows but these did not benefit artistes financially as they performed for free since audiences watched the shows for free.
Reflecting on this period, Novuyo Seagirl who started 2020 on a high note with a performance at the Zima awards, said she almost lost it as depression hit her hard.
“One minute, everything was okay and before I knew it, the lockdown came into effect and everything changed. It was hard, I couldn’t cope and I went into depression. Nothing was moving as I wasn’t making any progress. The world was just crumbling,” said the AEIOU hit-maker.
She said she had to redefine her character in order to survive.
“Realising how the situation had affected me, I decided to comfort myself by telling myself that everyone was facing the same situation. Instead of complaining, I asked myself, ‘why not turn the tables and take advantage of the situation.”
“I then went back to the drawing board and started working on my debut album.”
Novuyo however said after working so hard on the new project, she lost all the recordings when her producer was mugged in South Africa forcing her to start the process afresh.
She said she has learnt to live ‘the new normal’ as the pandemic will be with us for sometime.
“This is a pandemic and people, artistes included, should accept that it’s something they can’t change. They should find ways to survive through the challenges and get used to it by taking each day as it comes,” said Novuyo Seagirl. The Chronicle
