You cannot question the message in this song, the sheer joy and gratitude with which Juliana sings that chorus. I have a rather memorable experience regarding Juliana’s most profound single, Kanyimbe.

I was once out at a major supermarket in my neighborhood doing some shopping on the morning of New Year’s Day. Suddenly, on the overhead speakers, Juliana’s song, Kanyimbe, started playing.

I continued with my happy task of finding a tasty loaf of brown bread (no sugar, lots of fibre, doctor’s orders and all that) and low fat butter (no salt, low calorie count) and generally shopping like a middle class wannabe.

Then I noticed something odd. The people around me were humming along to the song. More than that, in fact; some of them were actually singing, and a few were even harmonising.

Strangers, all of them, couples, small families, the occasional bugger with the word HANGOVER written all over his face, one or two girls in heels and 12 hours – old makeup doing the walk of shame (the fact that they had swung by the supermarket probably meant they were still about as high as kites) and there they all were, almost completely unconscious of what they were doing, going about their business, picking a box of cereal here, a can of Coke there, and humming... and singing.
It was beautiful.

https://youtu.be/jpaMd3kaytU

Music is a language we all understand. And on that glorious morning, with the sunlight flooding in gently through the mart’s windows, the music from the overhead speakers called out to those early morning shoppers... and they answered, almost without knowing what they were doing, harmonising like an accidental choir.

The production from Fenon Records was intricate – everything from the crystal clear vocals when Juliana opens, to how the instrumentation builds, to when the choir backing her joins the chorus – it’s almost surgical how it was done.

Kanyimbe is easily Juliana’s most inspirational song, from a singer who seamlessly combines sheer talent and beauty with the resolve to face life’s challenges, and the grace to overcome them.