Even if you’ve never heard the name Ladysmith Black Mambazo, you may well have heard them sing. The South African vocal ensemble’s place on Paul Simon’s seminal 1986 album Graceland launched a globe-trotting career that’s included four Grammies. This breakthrough also embroiled the group in the controversy surrounding Graceland, given that Simon had broken the cultural boycott imposed on the apartheid regime by the rest of the world. This seems a bit overwrought in hindsight—after all, championing black artists performing traditional mbube vocal music isn’t exactly tacit support for South Africa’s segregationist government, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo have since become among the country’s preeminent cultural ambassadors. Besides, what’s more egregious is Graceland’s absurdly exaggerated ’80s production, which Ladysmith’s performances are presumably free of these days.

by Nathan Tucker