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By Fiona Wakelin

A Mezzo Soprano Singer and Voice Over Artist From Cape Town, Lauren Lee is a Graduate of the Cape Music Institute and was voice-coached by the amazing Amanda Luyt. She was born into a musical family and started singing at the age of 12. After passing her matric, she went on to study at the Cape Music Institute and joined the Winston Siljeur Project.

In 2015 Lauren-Lee appointed UK-based David Gummers as her manager. The rising star gave an outstanding performance of the South African national anthem at the Standard Bank Top Virtual Women Conference 2022. Top Women caught up with Lauren-lee to find out where it all began!

What have been your most memorable moment on stage?

My most memorable moment on stage was when I did my first solo show in the UK it was nerve-wracking but then and there I knew that I was doing what I love and helping a great cause.

How important is inspiring the youth of South Africa to you? Please give some examples.

It is really important to inspire the youth because all of us need some inspiring people to look up to. Not all of us have people close to us that we could look up to. So if I could somehow be an inspiration to the young people out there it would be a blessing. For example, I am an Ambassador for an organisation called New Heritage Foundation and we are going to schools trying to make a difference by educating them on some tough topics that are not discussed enough.

It is tough for artists in South Africa to turn professional – in your opinion what can be done to change this?

It is tough being a professional artist especially if you are an indie artist where you have to do things for yourself whereas if you had a record label things are done for you and funds are not a problem. In my opinion, I think an artist needs more funding in order to do amazing projects, especially at the start of their professional careers.

Please share with us the back story for your rendition of Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” which went viral. 

The first we did the rendition of Beyoncé irreplaceable was to showcase our upcoming show that took place in 2016. This was only a small segment of our show. We went up the video not expecting any of it but just to sell more tickets for our show and it went completely viral. We were really shocked at the attention the video got and it went even more viral when we did the parody on Expresso.

It has been played on the radio from New York to Wellington, we even made the Huffington post 

What exciting plans do you have for 2023?

I’m working on something really special for the year 2023. I’m focusing on getting a lot more original material out there. And I’m excited about the campaigns that I will be doing with the New Heritage Foundation next year.

Do you have a message of inspiration for our readers?

My message is that let us follow our dreams no matter how big or small we are able to do whatever we put our minds to. Yes at times it is tough but let’s rise above the noise.

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