A Breath of Fresh Air For Mzansi House


Ieva’s Debut Single
We catchs up with a talented European vocalist who has been described as a breath of fresh air in the South African house music scene. Her name is Ieva Meksraityte, 19 – the first Lithuanian to collaborate with a South African house music producer.

Ieva’s debut single, Labas Afrika, featured on the EP of the same name produced by the gifted Aero Manyelo, has received incredible support from house music’s global audience, as well as world famous DJs and producers such as Ralf Gum and Denz Devares.

Apart from South Africa and Lithuania, the EP is getting regular plays in the US, Greece, Netherlands, England, Italy and Germany just to name a few.
Here is what the vocalist behind Labas Afrika had to share.

Tell us briefly about Ieva Meksraityte’s background..
Ieva Meksraityte: I was born in a small town called Vilkaviskis. I came to England in 2006 and lived in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, for almost 4 years, where I studied Photography and Graphic Design in East Norfolk Sixth Form College, and then moved to Norwich.


When did you become interested in singing and what type of music did you grow up listening to?
IM: I’ve grown up listening to pop music. At that time my favourite singers were Britney Spears, Blue, Avril Lavigne and Shakira. I didn’t speak English, but was able to sing along with the songs without knowing what a singer is singing about. Since I was little I liked singing and wished one day there would be people that would sing along with my songs. I went to some singing classes in school and when I was about 15 years old my friends got me my first guitar, which meant a lot to me. I learnt the basics myself and started writing my own songs, recording low quality covers and uploading them on YouTube.

What can you tell us about your country of birth, Lithuania?
IM: My country is small, but has lots of beautiful places, beautiful women and beautiful history. We own part of Baltic Sea. We have hot summers and cold, full-of-snow winters. Amazing country to visit if you’re interested in a relaxing, tourist holiday.

Apart from singing what else do you do?
IM: I like doing a lot of things. One of my favourite hobbies is photography. I studied photography and will always be into taking pictures. It’s how I express myself. One day I want my pictures to hang in a gallery with my name on. I’ve always been involved in film making workshops; I did acting, belly dancing, writing, etc. I could never count things I like to do. I’m very creative and will always be interested in learning new, creative things and developing skills I already have. I also do a little modelling from time to time; catwalks, photo shoots… It’s all fun and a great work to do when you like creativity. I don’t always have to be behind the camera, people expect to see me in front of the camera too.
Lithunian Vocalist: Ieva Meksraityte

Your song is called LABAS AFRIKA – what is it all about?
IM: ‘Labas Afrika’ is Lithuanian. Translation for that would be as simple as Hello Africa. It is my first professionally recorded song and first song about Africa. With this title I am greeting Africa. The song in general is about Lithuania greeting South Africa – a country which is a million times different from mine. Words in the song are very beautiful, explaining about an imaginary path made out of ambers from Lithuania to South Africa. It emphasizes how your dream to move from place to place is possible even if you are using what you have around you. In this case ambers are precious in Lithuania and I am making my way to South Africa with the help of ambers, with my own language, with my own words. It’s all deep and dreamlike!

You’re putting the Lithuanian language on the map…Why have you decided to sing in your native language?
IM: One of my friends, Quibell Ramantswana, who does a South African radio show called Mzansi Show (on Future radio, UK), offered me the chance to sing in Lithuanian to South African beats. I thought it’s crazy! Who wants to hear Lithuanian songs in South Africa? But then I remembered myself singing in English when I spoke no English at all. It’s always been my dream! Why not give it a try? Then Quibell became my manager. He loves the sound of my language and he is sure that South Africans will love it too. I trust him!

How did the song come about?
IM: It’s hard to explain. From one word it turned into a song. First what came up was ‘Labas Afrika’. Quibell knew a word ‘labas’ in Lithuanian already and loved the sound of it. We came up with the greeting of Africa. The amazing thing of how I came up with the song was my conversation with Quibell. We simply shared beautiful memories of each other’s country. Later I put all of the memories together and created lyrics. When the lyrics were done we played the beats and I sang along, experimented, and tried different timings and styles until Quibell started singing with me. Then we knew: we have a song! It was very exciting..

Since this is your debut song, how do you describe your excitement?
IM: I am extremely excited. I could not explain how exciting it is to hear the remixes and hearing my own voice in the song and hearing all of the great comments I get from my friends, fans from different countries and I’m proud that Lithuania is behind me, supporting my music. The producer, Aero Manyelo, is happy about the song and it means a lot to me, because he knows what’s great to listen to in South Africa. We all are very excited!

Should we expect more from Ieva in future?
IM: Of course. After this song I’m not putting my hands down. The future can bring anything and I can’t wait to show the world what I can do. I want to surprise myself. That always promises a grand finale.

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4 thoughts on “A Breath of Fresh Air For Mzansi House

  1. i think @ sum point SAn kwaito music died. bt thnks 2 artsts lyk arthur, he stil kips it alive s possble. i lyk hs hlokoloza trck.

  2. i think @ sum point SAn kwaito music died. bt thnks 2 artsts lyk arthur, he stil kips it alive s possble. i lyk hs hlokoloza trck.

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