For South African artist Moonchild Sanelly, body positivity is the key to owning your sexuality

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For South African artist Moonchild Sanelly, body positivity is the key to owning your sexuality

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Moonchild Sanelly is undoubtedly one of the most exciting artists to come out of South African in recent years. She’s worked with everyone from Beyoncé to Gorillaz, Wizkid, and Ghetts, yet it’s her unique brand of “future-ghetto-funk”—an amalgamation of electronic, afro-punk, edgy-pop, kwaito, hip-hop and jazz—dynamic performance style, and empowering lyrics that have really helped her stand out from the crowd.

 

In line with her debut COLORS performance of ‘Sweet & Savage’ we sat down with Moonchild to discuss body positivity, owning your sexuality, and the life lessons she wants to pass on to her three daughters.

You grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Tell us about your hometown.

Port Elizabeth is known as “the windy city” and “the friendly city”. It’s the cleanest city in South Africa. It’s great for bringing up families or retiring because it’s so chilled. When I was growing up, I was always surrounded by people who were older than me. I was always the youngest in my grade at school because I started really early. Even so, I was always leading when we played games and so on. My grandma told me that I was a bully, but my mother was very supportive and told me to keep leading. She’d scold me for walking behind my friends. “You never follow,” she said. No wonder I became a rapper with a cause.

I never really dated while I was at school. I was the virgin who watched porn. I thought people were dumb for not knowing what a cock or a pussy was. I thought boys were dumb too. I loved stalking them though. I was weird.

Your mother was a singer and your cousins were Kwaito dancers. Did your family have a strong musical influence on you? 

Some households switch off the TV or change channel when more explicit artists come on. In my home, we were allowed to watch them. We would sing along to Mousse T’s ‘Horny ‘98’ lyrics not knowing what they meant. I thought being horny was to do with the horns of a bull and going on a bull ride!

The church I went to with my grandmother was also very open. They played Kwaito and R&B. At my mother’s house it was all about jazz. The first cassette she gave me was by Mary J. Blige. I was more into Destiny’s Child and the Spice Girls though. I even created my own group called Beps Girls. It’s crazy, because “to beps” is to have sex, but everything was very innocent at that point.

All of these genres ended up inspiring you to create “future ghetto funk”, your own unique style. With it, you send strong messages about female empowerment. How did this become become a key topic for you?

I make sex positive music so that people* know what good sexual experiences should be like. I was violated when I was younger. If I had heard the music that I make now, I would have known that what happened to me was wrong.

You need to own your sexuality. Part of that is being fine with your body. When you own your own body, you’re able to be responsible in your sexual activity. You can have sex with the lights on because you want to see what’s happening instead of hiding the parts of yourself you don’t like. When you love your body, you can notice when someone else doesn’t. You know that it’s not a favor for someone to love you. You know that you are the shit.

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Your explorations of sex positivity extend beyond your music—you’ve run your own party nights and said you’d like to open your own club one day. This statement got misconstrued in the South African press though, right?

For me, sex isn’t a theme, it’s my life. In the past, I’d go to sex clubs with my partner and only see white people. In socially accepted clubs, a lot of sexual harassment happens, but in sex clubs, you can walk around naked and nobody touches you. I was like, ‘I need this to exist for my Black people’, you know?

I talked about this to a journalist who’d never been to a sex club, and probably hadn’t done much research on them. The next thing I knew, they published an article saying that I was opening a brothel. I wasn’t able to find an apartment for a whole year because of it. They killed me… and my bank account!

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“I make sex positive music so that people* know what good sexual experiences should be like.”

Do you generally experience a lot of prejudice or misconceptions about the sexual themes you explore in your work?

People don’t know how to talk to me because they can’t believe I’ve got a brain. They think my head is just filled with ass shaking. It’s not easy for me to date in my country. They’ll wank to my image though.

Talking of your image, where did the idea for your signature blue “moon mop” come from? 

When I was in high school I died my hair red with food coloring. People thought I was satanic. They’d spit at me and say, “this girl is evil!” It wasn’t my first time being different. I’ve always been different, period. I’ll be different in my retirement home. I’ll be the rock and roller. I’m not even going to go to an old age home. Maybe I’ll open an old age club…

In 2011 I was about to move to Johannesburg, and Rihanna’s ‘What’s My Name?’ came out. She had red hair at that point, so people kept singing the lyrics to me on the street. Don’t get me wrong, I love Rihanna, but I wanted to have my own identity. One day, my friend gave me some bright blue wool that I started plaiting into a wig. When I showed it to my management in Durban, I told them, “this is a moon mop and I want to patent it.” They thought I was crazy, but I was worried that someone was going to use it as inspiration and that I wouldn’t get any credit. It’s happened before. Who’s laughing now?

How would you describe your aesthetics and style over all?

I’m pretty dark, like a punk unicorn. My music’s like that too. It’s like Snow White turns 21 and the seven dwarfs become her strippers.

Can you tell me about ‘Sweet and Savage’, the song you performed for COLORS.

[Singing] ‘I like girls, I nibble on boys now and then’… I’m just bisexual. This lyric was originally in my song ‘Boys and Girls’ but it went, ‘I like boys, I nibble on girls now and then.’ That was before I’d ever dated a girl. I’d just played around at that point.

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Now that I have dated a girl, I’ve asked myself, ‘was I really playing?’ I needed this lyric to relive, and to live with more experience. I’m dating a boy right now, so I’m not going to nibble on any girl, but it’s about the fact that I can.

What do you enjoy doing outside of music? 

I love dancing, going to the strip club, and going to the weed cafe to play poole while smoking joints. Those are really my favorite things. And skating! I’ve got three longboards and I’m probably going to buy another one in December. My new man can skate too.

You also enjoy spending time with your three daughters. Considering your music is so much about female empowerment, what are some of the key life lessons you want to pass onto them? 

My body my rules! They live with me, so they’re very expressive. I’ve got these three unfiltered girls in the house who just speak their minds. They dress how they want too. I can’t ever imagine myself telling them to go and cover up when I’m out here in my thong! I don’t want them to be fearful of the world.

What are your ambitions for the future? 

I want to work with Doja, Bree Runway, JT, and Megan Thee Stallion. I love RAYE too. I saw her Tiny Desk last year, DM’d her, and realized she’d DM’d me in 2019! Now we’re going to play together at the Jazz Cafe in London.

I’m also going to be playing alongside Grace Jones in Oslo. I remember playing at the same festival as her in Barcelona, but we were on different stages. I thought, “it’s fine, one day she’ll invite me to her house for a tea party. I just need to focus on my show, and I’ll see her next time.” I guess that time has arrived.

There’s still so many boxes I still need to tick. I want to do all the global festivals and to get my main stage shows. I want the world. I want to make music, to collaborate, and fuck shit up some more.

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Moonchild Sanelly is a South African artist whose debut A COLORS SHOW was released on 18th July 2024. Watch the full performance on our YouTube channel, or check out her other new single, ‘Scrambled Eggs‘, which is out now.

 

*A previous version of this article contained a quote which could be misunderstood without reading the full interview. After speaking to the artist, we’ve altered the quote slightly for clarity.

 

Text: Emily May
Photography: Chantelle Parson (photos 1, 3,4, and 5) and Phatstoki (photo 2)

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