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I recall a time randomly stumbling into a bar I hadn’t returned to in ages. They had recently just opened up their rooftop venue and had introduced their series of live performances from musicians all over the Mother City. I figured I would grab myself a cold one and join the crowd awaiting the presence of Lynn Cupido, a songbird I had not heard of before, but was grateful I did then.

Everything about her performance and aesthetic was alluring, leaving the audience stunned with how enchanting her voice sounded over sombre instrumentals that had me wondering what the hell I was listening to. I knew then that a conversation between us in the near future would need to happen.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and we finally had the chance to have that conversation. Linking up in Obz after both having a long day, we were able to chill out and get to talking, reflecting on topics like home, her journey as a creative, and her opinions on the R&B scene.

Firstly, who is Lynn Cupido?

“I’m very sensitive. I feel a lot. I love a lot. And I trust a lot, which might not always be too good for me, trusting and loving the right people, you know? You never know what the outcome may be with people.”

“I’m chilled because I’ve really experienced life. But I’m still learning and getting to really know myself. I think I lived in my head for years, and with “7even” is when I spoke about all those years of experiences in my life. With that project, I really let that shit out. So I’m just free and chilled now. Nothing is weighing me down besides my own shit, you know.”

“I decided to move away from things and people that hadn’t served me anymore. I let them stay for too long, which makes people too comfortable. I see these things, giving people the benefit of the doubt, and I’m not just speaking on romantic relationships. It’s every kind of relationship. It’s every aspect of society.”

“And also being that go-to person, I would always have to be ready if someone needed me. But for me, I don’t do that for myself. Each song on “7even”, while I was writing that, I was crying, and BLVQ IRIS would tell me to really sing everything out.”

Yeah, “7even” seemed like a really personal project. We got to really learn a lot about you.

“Yeah, that was raw. I was really there. “Pay The Piper” had me admitting that I had done those things, and I was wrong. I would not say all those things in the song if I had not also gone through apologizing to people, trying to connect and reconnect.”

“The year before I dropped “7even”, I knew I had to rekindle my relationship with my family. And I went back home, and I was just feeling things. “7even” was just halfway done in the vault, but I was fixing it, even if it was just harmonies. I just harmonized whatever I felt.”

“The decision to go back home was important because I knew there was something holding me back from my growth. I couldn’t move further than this.“

What does home mean to you then?

“I am from Kimberley in the Northern Cape. Cape Town isn’t my home, and I was actually born in a town called De Aar.”

“But yeah, home, to me, feels like I can sleep, to be honest. Unfortunately, I suffer from insomnia. But when I’m there, I feel like I can sleep. I feel safe and I’m so relaxed. There’s no stress at all. What do I have to stress about when I’m home?”

“I need to be calm, and being home takes that stress away from me. I have nothing to do but just be there and walk around, lie around, or have conversations with family. The most random family member will just pop up, that nobody has seen in ages, they just rock up and connect.”

“But by going back home and finding the root of everything, it feels good. When I went home, I felt like I just needed a cleansing. I was just heavily lost, you know. Going home meant that nothing else made sense for me, but going to see my grandmother was important. I think getting that disconnection for a while got me disconnected from reality for a while. I just needed to go home to collect myself.”

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Let’s talk about the honest truths you shared with “7even”

“The decision of going back home while writing “7even” was a choice I’m happy I made. I am my own therapist. If I can’t help myself, I won’t allow anyone else to. It starts with me, and “7even” helped because it was me saying everything out loud that I know is true, and that I know of things that I should be doing and feeling. Even if it’s good or bad, I’ve said what’s on my mind in the most beautiful way that I could. I used that to just let it all out.”

“I have to speak my truth. I can’t advocate for growth and healing if I don’t do it myself. Accountability and responsibility was something that was difficult for me. And when I’m not in control of things, I get frustrated because I’m so used to needing to having everything under control. When I don’t have that, that’s when I’m not myself.”

“And it wasn’t always good; sometimes it would be ugly. And I have to acknowledge that. I have to acknowledge that I was there and that was me. And it’s not just me, it’s all of us!”

At what point in your life did you start singing?

“I left Kimberley because there was nothing else left for me to do there. After my mom passed away, I was running away from that and the singing. It’s actually funny because from an early age, at 12, I really didn’t want to sing. Singing was not what I wanted to do.”

“Songwriting was more of my thing; I just wanted to be a writer. And I also danced and modelled since I don’t even remember how long ago. I saw myself in the mirror, that I was already dancing and doing pageants. I was this whole drama queen. I had the whole ‘Miss Winter’ pageant ribbon until Grade 10 or 11.”

“And my mom was a dancer and a model too. My dad sings, but I think it's from both of my parents that I got my talents from. I know the dancing comes from my mom because she made sure I danced. Even when we’d move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, she’d always find me a dance club. And I actually never had time to go outside and play that much, because I was always put into these things. But it was nice to do that.”

“And when my mom passed away, it was just such an eye-opener. Where I’m at now, Bridges Academy, they always make us journal in the morning for our gratitude. We also meditate in the morning. And we had to think of a teacher whom we were grateful for, and I thought of my old music teacher back in school.”

“She’d always ask me why I never wanted to join the choir, and at the time, I really didn’t want to be doing that. I just wanted to play sports or do other activities. I played netball and did athletics. I was also writing and acting at that time too. I was also doing poetry and stuff like that. I remember my mom bought me painting equipment with multiple colours, brushes, and tutorials to help bring my creative ideas to life.”

“But my teacher would always make me sing in class, and I hated it at the time, but I’d sing, and everyone would be so wowed by me singing. But I still never wanted to join the choir. The confidence for me was everywhere else but singing. Singing for me was so nerve-racking, and I just didn’t want to sing out loud.”

That’s actually crazy because the first time I had seen you perform at a show at Saggy Stone, you were a natural. What were you trying to run away from?

“I don’t know! But it made sense because I needed a journey, you know? You had to find yourself, and coming to Cape Town was the plan. It was to find myself because I didn’t know what I wanted. I knew what I liked and I knew what I was good at, but I needed to find what I wanted and what my capabilities were.”

“And I remember in Grade Eight, there was this talent show where I was forced by my mom to sing. I did not want to do that at all. Even at Church and weddings, Yoh! And at this talent show, my friend wanted us to sing this song together, like a duet, and I went along with that. At least I knew I was doing it with someone else, so I figured, let me just try.”

“We practiced, we auditioned, and we were in. The day of the show, this girl is nowhere to be found. I was panicking and everything. I told my mom I couldn’t do it, but she told me to just sing a cappella, sing anything. I remember asking her why she needed me to do it, but now I got out of there, and my mom was so angry. But five years later, when she passed away, that memory slapped me.”

“For some reason, when she passed, all the music stuff started popping out for me. There was an Afrikaans songwriting competition from this well-known Afrikaans rapper. They came there, and I wrote songs about my mom, and it was my first song where we went to this songwriting workshop. My friend also wanted me to go do this thing with her. And on the day of the workshop, she said she’s not coming anymore, and now I had this choice to make. Lynn, either you go or you’re going to repeat that same previous memory I had all those years ago.”

“I decided I’d go, and I remember even making it in the top five of the competition, and I went to Potchefstroom for the finals, where I had to actually perform at the workshop. But I sang my heart out. It was deep, it was meaningful for me, and it was in my own home language, which was personal for me.”

“That’s when I was like, with music, let me actually do this thing. That’s when I was meeting with producers, which I didn’t even know we had in Kimberley. I was meeting performers at the Trap Shack, and I was really recording and went from there.”

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How would you describe your sound and how did you discover it?

“My sound is when you just close your eyes and feel something. It’s peaceful, it’s soothing, but sensual, and elegant. It's sassy, vulnerable, and emotional. It’s strong but also bitchy, you know?”

“If I had to put it in a way, it’s also gangster, but in a delicate flower kind of way. That’s just me. I want to make people float, and that’s the response that I get when I perform. I am my best self when I perform with a band. My performances with a band will never be the same. What I play today will be different tomorrow. It’ll be something different, but it’ll be something good.”

“I surprise myself a lot, and I listen to artists who make me want to express myself. I listen to people like Alina Baraz, NNAVY, and Naomi Sharon - she’s definitely the lady I’ve been looking at in terms of her vocal abilities. There’s a whole lot more of them I listen to who helped me discover and shape my sound.”

“But I’m also just trying to find what is for me. But I’m not rejecting anything.”

“I had the opportunity to go to Potchefstroom for the finals, but I couldn’t attend because I had to study. That was the dream my father had for me.”

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Reflecting back on your time as a musician, has your journey been a good time?

“Yeah, in a way. I tend to forget that I’m just as good as other people who are more out there in your space. You tend to sit back a little. But then I wonder why am I sitting back? Because when I step into other rooms, I realize that I’m that girl.”

“I am Lynn Cupido, you know? I need to carry myself like that because my name is traveling, which is surprising to me. And I know people really mess with my work. I know people especially mess with my song “Move”. Everybody loves “Move”! But I’m always wondering how the rest of my music is doing.”

“But I know my music is actually going out there. People have their favourites when I perform. Songs like “Say Something” they also love because it’s so sad, and they feel something. That's like my favourite from “7even”. It’s between that and “Pay The Piper”. I like them equally. Those two speak to me. But as tough as the journey has been, and I’ve been doing this for eight years now, I have had it good.”

For my last question, what’s your opinion on the current cultural landscape?

“Of course, there’s that thing of challenges like gatekeeping. But I’m here to create my own thing. If I want to do something, I’m going to do that thing. But I also don’t think I can speak on it all that much because that’s a thing that mostly happens in the Hip Hop scene.”

“I am here to build on the R&B scene. We don’t have that! Even in South Africa as a whole. I raised that point in my classes. I see it as an opportunity to be that girl. I feel like the R&B scene is finally growing now. I’ve been seeing these NeoSoul picnic events happening in Jozi and things like that, so it’s coming.”

“But R&B in SA has been so stagnant. When last did we really have an R&B banger? The last person was Elaine. I can even mention Rowlene back then. They were really doing it for R&B back then. For me, the R&B scene has been lacking. It’s been dead for a long time.”

“And I’m dedicated to changing that. I feel like we really need to change that. And I love to see that it’s coming now.”

The second Lynn arrived for the chat, she already had this bubbly persona, which perfectly matched her intriguing story. I agreed with many of her views, especially her kind words about what home feels like to her. Something we both could relate to.

Keep an eye out for more work from Cupido. From what she teased, something soon may be coming her way in the near future, and I look forward to experiencing new work from the gifted virtuoso. For now, check out her well-adored project, “7even”, available on streaming platforms.

The Heart & Soul Of Lynn Cupido

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