Gospel star Ntokozo Mbambo speaks on winning big at SAMAs & ignoring Kelly Khumalo’s rant

Well-known Mzansi Gospel star, Ntokozo Mbambo has enjoyed a year to remember, and she won’t let anyone, not even Kelly Khumalo, get in the way of that.

Ntokozo Mbambo made history on the SAMA 29 stage this past November when she walked away with three trophies. She won Best Contemporary Faith Music Album, Best Album and the highly coveted Best Female Artist Album. It made her the first contemporary gospel artist to win three awards on the same night at the South African Music Awards.

Although one of the awards stung a certain Kelly Khumalo (More on that in a moment), Ntokozo Mbambo has been focused on celebrating a never-before-seen achievement after her clean sweep. We spoke to the singer to discover what this incredible achievement meant to her and how she dealt with unwanted noise.

It was a night of celebration for Ntokozo Mbambo as her 2023 album, Lavish Worship, won Best Album and Best Contemporary Faith Music Album. Speaking to The South African, she revealed how it felt to walk away with three trophies on the night, including Best Female Artist. We’d call it a hat trick in football, but we asked what that would be in music terms.

She replied, “In music terms that would be a triad chord [laughs]. I am honestly grateful to God for allowing my music to be able to have an impact on so many people’s lives. When talking about the streams, my fans are just incredible and they make all of this possible by supporting me in every way. We don’t do this for the awards, we do it because we love what we do, but it is always great to be recognized for what we bring”.

There was one particular moment we discussed where, just after winning one award, she discovered (while backstage!) that she had won another immediately afterwards! “That was just so funny, we were backstage and the person accompanying me was just asking me to wait, probably just protocol. And then next thing it turns out I’ve won again! It was totally unexpected!”

Ntokozo Mbambo is so humble. The way she's speaks, the way she conducts herself. She isn't fazed at all by the fame or her recent hattrick of SAMAs triumph. She firmly has her feet on the ground. A rare thing to see.

— Olebogeng Legote ? (@OleLegote) December 1, 2023

The Sound of Revival star’s night was pitch-perfect. However, the aftermath threatened to ruin it all when her fellow Best Artist nominee, Kelly Khumalo, went onto social media to complain after losing out to Ntokozo Mbambo. Without dwelling on the matter too much, we asked Ntokozo how she dealt with that moment as the topic trended for days on social media.

In her opinion, it was best to ignore it all. She said, “In these moments I always look to God and ask God to work through me. So I was not compelled to do or say anything, as a team we also decided not to respond. Instead, we wanted to focus on what mattered most – winning three awards at the SAMAs and making ourselves, our fans and families proud”.

Now, the victory lap for Lavish Worship continues. When asked what fans can look forward to next she revealed “We shot a lot of visual performances of the songs on Lavish Worship. Now feels like a great time to work on releasing those in the next few months and fans can look out for more live videos like our 2023 Sound of Revival performance”.