About this time last year, Janie Bay packed her bags in Jozi and returned to her home turf down south. Since then she’s dropped a string of singles and her latest, mostly acoustic EP In Die Sitkamer – which was as soothing as she gets really.
Now she’s powering back onto the airwaves with a dynamic, electro-pop collaboration with Majozi and Early B: “My Lief”, a sugary ode to the staying power of commitment when times get tough. It’s not her first rodeo with Early B – the two teamed up last year in “Die Heelal” which featured on In Die Sitkamer – but it’s the first time she’s joined forces with Majozi and honestly, it’s a duo-lingo match made in heaven.
Silky Afrikaans lyricism dominates for the most part, built over a thudding beat and minimal electro melody. Majozi slides in for the brief English counterpart verse, before Early B drops some slick verses to shake a little edge into the otherwise safe-zone track.
The video, shot and directed by Damiane van Reenen, is a cinematic slice of the Western Cape as you don’t often see it: positioned from the sweeping barrenness of a tilled field. Scattered plastic chairs represent something a little deeper – the multiple perspectives needed to be taken into consideration, or something like that.
It may not be her most pivotal release to date, but Janie Bay has always known how to make a topic stick.
