“The Girl Next Door”: A Semantic Lyrical Analysis of Zahara’s Songs “Destiny” and “Rise Again”

Abstract

This article applies semantic lyrical evaluation to two songs by the South African singer and songwriter, Bulelwa Mkutukana, popularly known as Zahara. The choice of these two songs is driven by her significant contributions to popular music, particularly in the arena of Afro-soul and contemporary African music. Her distinctive voice, heartfelt lyrics, and synthesis of various musical stylistics earned her widespread acclaim both in South Africa and globally. On the one hand, the global village continues to downplay South African music, claiming that it is too customised and culturally imbued. This article argues that song lyrics, like poetry, embrace ambiguous and polysemic meanings that may not be effortlessly conceptualised by those outside the arena of language and music. This means that the sense-making process requires linguistic theoretical techniques to enact context-specific meanings. To address this need, this article applies semantics as a theoretical framework. The principal findings and discussions indicate how Zahara uses language to articulate some of the social challenges that may contribute to the urgency of social change, transformation, consciousness, and cohesion, such as empowerment and motivation. By the same token, this article underlines how language and music share fundamental elements, both relying on rhythm, pitch, and structure, yet serving distinct communicative purposes. Language conveys meaning through words, phrases, and sentences, while music expresses emotions and aesthetics through sound and melody. Thus, the intersection of linguistic and musical subtleties in song underscores a unique synergy where the emotional reverberation of music enhances the communicative power of language.