Diva of song and stage, prolific jingle voice and Idols voice trainer Malie Kelly in an exclusive Women’s Month interview. Excerpts from the original podcast are included in the article. The story was originally published in August 2008.

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There are few South Africans who haven't heard the voice of Malie Kelly. She has recorded more than 15 thousand jingles and themes, recently also the theme for the popular South African sitcom The Coconuts.


In this exclusive interview with Buzz editor Leoni Kok, Malie takes us behind the scenes of her life as a singer and voice coach. We also catch a candid glimpse of Malie at home. She confesses to being a horrid cook and having a ban on music in her private space.

Malie entered the music business when she'd barely left high school. She tells Buzz what a sense of homecoming she felt when she entered her first recording studio.









In the 1990s an American evangelist invited Malie to tour the United States. She spent two years on the road peforming for mega audiences and later settled with her family in Dallas, Texas. She recalls the nerves before a solo performance at a packed Madison Square Garden in New York.





After a three month holiday back home, Malie decided to return to South Africa permanently in 2003. Shortly after she bumped into producer Johan Laas who convinced her to try her hand at voice coaching. Several seasons of SA Idol   later, she is still loving it.   





Her passion for teaching has subsequently led to the creation of Spotlight On – a training school offering a complete experience for aspirant musicians, actors and those who want to improve their ability at public speaking. Malie does the voice work, while partners Karen Cutts and Ivor Jones focus on performance and movement respectively. Malie explains the process of transforming the timid into the super confidant.







Malie also uses Spotlight On to connect aspiring artists with the music industry. She and her colleagues plan to take their workshops on the road and eventually present the workshops at schools.





So what does Malie do to unwind? She claims not to be very domesticated and she muses at how she has been able to keep her marriage and family together considering her lack of skill in this department.



Finally she shares some inside gossip with Buzz on the shenanigans she and fellow singer Mynie Grové got up to back in the day. She also sings some of the famous jingles she recorded during her career and reveals her boeremeisie roots. 




Buzz would like to thank Malie for rummaging through her personal store of photographs and sharing them with us.