Sibongile Khumalo, South Africaâs âFirst Lady of Song,â Dies at 63
Proficient across a range of genres, she had the hall-filling power of an operatic mezzo-soprano and the directness of a pop singer.
The South African singer Sibongile Khumalo in performance at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn in 2007.Credit.Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times
Published Feb. 1, 2021Updated Feb. 4, 2021
Sibongile Khumalo, a virtuoso vocalist whose ease of motion between opera, jazz and South African popular music made her a symbol of the countryâs new social order after the end of apartheid, died on Jan. 28. She was 63.
Her family wrote on Instagram that the cause was complications of a stroke, and that she had endured a long illness. The post did not say where she died.