Mango Groove

Mango Groove is an 11-piece South African Afropop band whose music fuses marabi, kwela, and pop music. They have sold more than 700,000 albums in South Africa. In 1984, John Leyden formed Mango Groove with Andy Craggs and Aaron "Big Voice Jack" Lerole in Johannesburg, South Africa. Lead vocalist Claire Johnston joined the band soon after, during her final year as an undergraduate student at the University of the Witwatersrand. Johnston completed her Bachelor of Arts degree while touring with the band. During the 1980s and 1990s, Mango Groove was one of only two popular South African music groups with both black and white band-members. Mango Groove had at least 12 number-one hits in South Africa, and are the only band in South Africa's history with an album that remained in a sales chart for more than a year. They have received nearly every South African music award and video award, as well as a number of awards internationally. In 1992, Mango Groove performed, via satellite uplink, for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in London, to an audience estimated at one billion people. They previously performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Rock Against Racism concert in Paris.