South African singer-songwriter Shekhinah is preparing the fifth edition of her independent festival, Rosefest, as new streaming figures reveal the country’s appetite for R&B. The event, which has grown to twice the size of its previous outing, features a lineup of leading women in the genre, including Thando Zide, Elaine, Nanette and Simmy.
Data from Spotify shows that South Africans streamed R&B for more than 8.5 billion minutes in 2025, equivalent to over 142 million hours. Listeners aged 18 to 24 accounted for 40.9% of those streams, with the 25-to-29 bracket contributing a further 18.7%. Tyla, whose album A*POP was recently released, leads the platform’s list of most-streamed local R&B artists, followed by Sondae, Lloyiso, Elaine and Jordan G Welch.
Rosefest’s Evolution and Mission
Rosefest began in 2019 with two editions, in Johannesburg and Durban, before moving online in 2020 during the pandemic. Last year’s event at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden was the festival’s fourth. Originally conceived as an extension of Shekhinah’s debut album Rose Gold, the festival was designed to challenge gender imbalance in the industry by creating a platform for women artists, DJs, producers and creatives.
Shekhinah said the perception that R&B acts cannot draw audiences is contradicted by her own experience. “I think there was a lot of conversation around the Ella Mai show, where it was like, the lineup is not R&B, but the headline is R&B. And everyone was like, well, R&B artists don’t pull numbers. And I felt like that’s crazy, because we sold out our show last year, and our show was a majority of R&B artists,” she said.
She also pointed to the Once Upon a Time in Joburg audience, noting that while attendees pay to see the international act, they are vocal in their appreciation for local performers. “It’s not just R&B; it’s also your neo-soul, like your Lia Butlers or your Thando Zides or your Mananas or Lloyiso. Lloyiso is always selling out shows,” she added.
Artists on the Genre’s Momentum
Elaine, returning to Rosefest for the third time, recalled the unexpected success of her debut project Elements. “I dropped [Elements] on a Sunday; I uploaded it to DistroKid myself. I had lectures the following Monday, and I was upset because I got the release timing wrong. I was a bit emotional, and I had an exam the next day, so I just decided to switch my phone off. When I walked into my lecture hall, everyone was just staring and pointing,” she said. After turning her phone back on, she discovered the project had reached number one on the charts. “Then the guys from Apple Music were like, yo, you need to come here immediately!”
Elaine later signed with Columbia Records in August 2020, joining a roster that included Adele, Beyoncé and Pharrell. She described the experience as a mutual learning process. “There was a lot of learning that [the label] had to do: about a girl from South Africa making R&B: they didn’t even know that a South African girl can make R&B like that. We made some amazing music together, but I was like, you know what, you guys have a lot to learn, I have a lot to learn. I also wasn’t willing to wait for them to figure me out,” she said.
Nanette, who recently released the deluxe edition of her 2025 album Painfully Happy, is also on the Rosefest lineup. She believes the diversity of the current R&B landscape deserves wider recognition. “There’s so many artists who are in the R&B space, and they’re so consistent in the quality of their music and their sound. And I just thought that was something that deserved to be celebrated and spoken about. I really think R&B is the moment right now, because we’ve got so many diverse forms of R&B, and everybody is just contributing to the bigger picture of soul, which I think is really beautiful,” she said.
Ticket sales for Rosefest were already running ahead of the same point last year, and the event officially sold out in July, prompting organisers to extend capacity.
