Yvonne Chaka-Chaka

Yvonne Chaka Chaka (born Yvonne Machaka in 1965) is a South African singer.

She first burst onto the South African music scene in 1984 with her massive hit, "I'm in Love WIth a DJ." Since that time disco (also called bubblegum) music has proliferated throughout South Africa. Bubblegum borrows from township jive with vocals arranged as overlapping call-and-response patterns, but diverges by often using multiple synthesizers to reproduce most sounds, along with the electronic drum box. Forget saxophones or drumming or even the syncopated guitar riffs popular in mbanqanga.

Chaka-Chaka's powerful alto voice along with her finely-crafted and arranged material accounts for her wide popularity

Yvonne has been in the music industry for more than 25 years. She has shared the stage with megastars such as Bono, Angelique Kidjo, Annie Lennox, Youssou N'Dour, the classic rock band Queen, and South Africans Johnny Clegg, Miriam Makeba, and Hugh Masekela, to name a few.
Yvonne has performed for HRM Queen Elizabeth, US President Bill Clinton, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and many other world leaders. As a young performer Yvonne was the first black child to appear on South African television, in 1981.

Since then she has consistently developed her creative capabilities and expanded her media repertoire to include musician, record producer, talk radio and television shows, and acting in several South African television dramas. In 2009 Yvonne went on to shot her debut feature film, FOREIGN DEMOS, in which she plays the Lead role as JOSEPHINE. There seems to be no end to Yvonne’s talents.

Yvonne has met many luminaries in her illustrious career; she says her favourite is mentor and father figure, Nelson Mandela. He calls her his “dear daughter.” “Madiba” as he is affectionately known, recounts that it was Yvonne’s music that helped sustain him, and others, while confined as prisoners on Robben Island.