The Ndlovu Youth Choir is a South African musical group founded in 2009 by Ndlovu Care Group childcare community based in Elandsdoorn, Limpopo. In October 2018, they released a single “Shape of You” with South African flautist Wouter Kellerman. The song won Best Independent Music Video at the Hollywood Music Awards. Towards the end of 2019, they auditioned on America’s Got Talent season 14 and lost the competition in the finals.
Kellerman said he had received a request from a Nigerian artist to do a collaboration, part of which he wanted a South African youth choir. Kellerman’s manager, Tholsi Pillay, went out looking for choirs and she found the Ndlovu Youth Choir. “I started working together with them and I was so impressed by their energy and enthusiasm. Then we did a collaboration to help them show their talent to the rest of the world. “We ended up doing Shape of You by Ed Sheeren, then I put it up on my YouTube channel and social pages and it just went viral.”
They signed a record deal with Syco Entertainment joint venture with Sony and began recording their debut studio album Africa after they returned from America’s Got Talent. Their debut studio album Africa was released on November 29, 2019. The album won Best Adult Contemporary Album and debuted number one in South Africa. Their second album Rise was released on December 11, 2020.Their third studio album Grateful was released on April 29, 2022. They collaborated with 25K, Sun-El Musician, Tyler ICU and the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.
In 2025, a translation of “Bohemian Rhapsody” into Zulu language was authorised by surviving members of Queen and the Mercury Phoenix Trust. The Zulu version is performed by the Ndlovu Youth Choir under artistic director Ralf Schmitt, “We approached the translation with the utmost care, keeping it as true to the original as possible,” said Sandile Majola, a choir member who assisted with the translation. “Bringing this song to life in my own language gave it a whole new meaning for me.” In addition to the lyrical adjustments, the rendition incorporates African musical elements like isicathamiya, a popular Zulu a cappella singing style, and kwassa kwassa, an energetic type of music and dance that originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The music video, shows the choir decked out in traditional attire.
