Letta Mbulu grew up in Soweto, where choral singing, township jazz, popular song, and traditional African music formed the foundation of her musical life. She began performing while still in her teens, singing with the celebrated vocal group the Skylarks before joining the landmark South African jazz musical King Kong. The production took her across South Africa and to London, placing her among an extraordinary generation of artists that included Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, and Caiphus Semenya, whom she would marry. Her early musical language joined the direct emotional power of African vocal traditions with the sophistication of jazz, folk music, and the cosmopolitan energy of urban South Africa.

After leaving apartheid South Africa for the United States, Mbulu established herself as one of the most distinctive African voices on the international stage. She toured with Cannonball Adderley and Harry Belafonte, recorded with leading arrangers and producers, and developed a sound enriched by American jazz, soul, and Brazilian music without losing its South African center. Her collaborations with Quincy Jones brought her voice to landmark film and television projects, including Roots and The Color Purple, while her Swahili vocal introduction to Michael Jackson’s “Liberian Girl” became one of her most widely heard performances. Across her solo recordings and her work with Semenya, Mbulu united rhythmic vitality, lyrical warmth, and cultural memory, helping carry South African music to audiences around the world.