25 Nov 2024

Jazz maestro, Socca Moruakgomo launched his single, Heidi at Wagga Gardens over the weekend.

The event was graced by among  others, South Africa’s Selaelo Selota, Punah Gabasiane, Shanti Lo and Johnny Mokhali in support of his launch.

 Released in October, Heidi is the middle name of Moruakgomo’s wife and the song is a dedication to her.

The song, a romantic love ballad, was written in 2023 by Moruakgomo when he was in the Caribbean Islands, when flashbacks of his previous European tour came to mind.

He said in an interview during the launch that in putting down the lyrics, he then decided to write the song in three languages; English, Sengologa and Papiamento, which he borrowed from the Caribbean Island.

 Sengologa is a language spoken mostly in the western part of Botswana and where his wife originates.

“Using Sengologa was a way of honouring my in-laws and I also want to promote their language in this regard,” Moruakgomo said, adding that it was often common to sing in English and Setswana and sometimes a foreign language such as Papiamento, therefore, using another native Setswana language made sense to also expose it to the world.

Heidi, Moruakgomo said would be part of the next album that he was working on and anticipated for release early 2025. “There is another released single, New Dawn, which will also be part of that new album,” he said.

Moruakgomo said on the upcoming album he had moved from his traditional singing about expressing love to ‘something like a date in the cruise, which is really deep and I am excited about the lyrics in Heidi single.

The single was recorded at Simz Records in Gaborone and mastered by Dave Segal of At Forest Studio in South Africa.

It was arranged and produced by Moruakgomo and he has worked with Botswana’s musical greats such as John Selolwane, Trevor Ramolemane, Simba Mukonyo, Dylan Lebekwa, among others with Berry Heart and Suggie on vocals. ENDS