About
Shekhinah, born Shekhinah Thandi Donnell, is a Pop/R&B vocalist and songwriter born in Durban, South Africa. After singing and performing in musicals for many years throughout her childhood and early teens, the young artist landed her first major gig competing in South Africa’s 7th Season of the hit television show, IDOLS, where she made Top 32. After being eliminated Shekhinah proceeded to enter the competition in its 8th season where she landed in the Top 6 of the overall competition. She went on to complete a Live Performance degree at AFDA in 2017.
Shekhinah has established herself as an artist on a national scale by performing at a variety of corporate, government and public events since her stint on IDOLS. In 2016 we see her with 2 #1 hit singles under her belt – “Back to the Beach” and “Let You Know”. In 2016 the hit song “Back to the Beach” was nominated for a Metro Music Award (MMA) and a South Africa Music Award (SAMA) but in October she won the MTV Africa Music Award (MAMA), while completing her degree.
In 2017 Shekhinah released her debut Album “Rosegold”, leading with the single “Suited”.
2018 was a wonderful year of growth and success for Shekhinah, with her being nominated for 6 SAMA’s and winning 3 (Album of the Year, Best female artist, Best Newcomer), an MTV EMA nomination for Best African Act and 6 AFRIMA nominations of which she won 2, Best Female Artist in Southern Africa and Songwriter of the year. With the success of her singles “Suited” (certified platunum), “Please Mr” (certified platinum) and “Different” (certified gold), Shekhinah has taken her performance all over Africa and has collaborated with many international companies and artists. Shekhinah has joined international acts on the South African leg of their World Tours, namely John Legend, Toni Braxton and Ed Sheeran. Rosegold is currently certified platinum in SA and Shekhinah is optimistic this will continue to grow with her being one of the most streamed South African artists in 2018 and 2019 and making the list for Forbes Africa’s ”30 under 30” creatives.
In 2019 Shekhinah branched out and created a platform focused on uplifting females in the South African music industry, Rosefest. With 2 festivals in 2012, Johannesburg and Durban, we saw a phenomenal 17 female performers engage with 6000 festival go-ers in a celebration of female talent and comraderie. Shekhinah moved this platform online for 2020 which featured 11 female artists performing in studio for online viewers after an 8-week long campaign which saw Rosefest partnering with LifeLine to hold discussions around issues South African women face. These can be found on YouTube.
In 2020 Shekhinah released “Fixate”, her lead single from her new album “Trouble in Paradise”, followed by “Tides”. Her second studio album is out now.