Amantle Ntshole: Ascending songstress and engineer
Many will remember her as the petite aspirant singer with a strong and powerful voice who took to the My Star stage in 2011, and sang passionately with unmatched keenness and hunger for success.
Born Amantle Ntshole, 22 years ago, this ambitious girl who hails from Morwa village, has worked hard to make her dreams come true. Amantle openly shares about being raised in an underprivileged home, but that this didn’t stop her from dreaming big.
“I could see that beyond that affliction, I could rise from poverty and one day share my testimony. I thank God for uplifting me. The challenges I have faced in the past didn’t break me but rather, made me who I am today,” she says.
Amantle comes from a close-knit family comprising of her parents and two sisters, Andile and Chedza, who she says are all supportive of her music career. Growing up, Ntshole never imagined that she could sing before crowds because she was extremely shy and lacked confidence. Things changed in 2007, when she joined a choir at Borwa CJSS called The Saint. Everybody instantly fell in love with her voice.
In 2011, immediately after completing her Form 5 exams, she decided to enter popular singing competition, My Star. “I didn’t have any expectations or clear goals. However, after I made it to the top ten, I realised that I had potential,” she says.
Amantle was eliminated in the 9th spot. Her knockout was a huge blow. “I cried like a baby. I thought it was the end of me. I felt cheated and wanted to prove a point. I carried a lot of negative energy because I was so hurt,” she recalls.
She eventually decided that languishing in bitterness and wallowing in pity would do her no good. Amantle wasted no time in putting together her music career. Her first ever single, Drop it Low, released in 2014, didn’t do well. She returned to the studio with talented producer, Orbylardo, and burst onto the music scene in February this year with the contemporary hit song, Moratiwa.
It topped music charts on local radio stations and pumped at jazz shows, parties and in kombis. The song is a plea to a man who has abandoned his home nest to return. This is an accurate reflection of reality, especially considering the rampant “trend” in our society in which some men dump their partners with children. Amantle had hit home for many Batswana; and what more, she sang in Setswana.
Amantle has since then worked with local artists such as ATI, Mapetla and DJ Kuchi among others. She hopes to one day collaborate with local talents Charma Gal, Lizibo and Samantha Mogwe. She also dreams of working with South African house music duo Uhuru and Nigerian music star Davido.
Amantle recently returned from Lagos, Nigeria, where she attended the Africa Music Awards (AFRIMAs) as the country’s representative and nominee in the “Best revelation” category. Ntshole is also a nominee in this year’s Yarona FM Music Awards’ best female singer category. At the recently held BOMU awards, she was nominated in the Best Female Artist, Best RnB and Best Newcomer categories. She walked away with the latter gong.
Earlier this year, she was among the artists invited to perform in Zimbabwe at a concert aimed at raising awareness against xenophobia. Amantle has also undergone a makeover from a tomboy, and nowadays sports a stylish hairdo and dresses in fashionable garb which accentuates her slim perky figure, and gives her an alluring, mature and effortlessly feminine edge.
But if you think that she’s all song and looks, but no brains, think again... Amantle balances her music career with her studies at the University of Botswana where she is a third year student in Mineral Engineering.