Goapele bio

Goapele Mohlabane (pronounced gwah-puh-LAY) (born on July 11 1977), professionally known as Goapele is an American soul and R&B singer and songwriter. Her name means "to go forward" in the South African language Tswana. She was born in Oakland, California, to an Israeli Jewish mother, Noa, and a Black father, Douglas Mohlabane, who was a South African political exile. They married in Nairobi, Kenya. Goapele attended the Berkeley Arts Magnet School in Berkeley, California. During these years, she joined several groups that fought racism and sexism. She also sang in the Oakland Youth Chorus and joined a group called Vocal Motion. After graduating high school, Goapele attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she studied music theory. In 2001, after self-releasing her debut album, Closer, she founded Skyblaze Recordings with her brother Namane to oversee her musical career. In 2002, she released her first nationally distributed album, Even Closer, featuring the single "Closer," through Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings. In 2004, Columbia/SME Records picked up Skyblaze Recordings for worldwide distribution and rereleased the album with additional tracks. She co-wrote and co-produced the entire album, which is a mixture of neo-soul, trip-hop, lieder, and jazz. She also toured North America with the band Spearhead. Apart from her solo work, she has collaborated with West Coast MCs such as Aceyalone, E-40, Hieroglyphics, Zion I, Keak Da Sneak, and Triple Threat and has written for jazz trio Soulive. Her sophomore album, Change It All, featuring the single "First Love," was released December 2005. On September 14, 2006, the California-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights honored Goapele with its first ever Human Rights Cultural Hero Award during the Center’s 10th Anniversary Celebration, titled “Tribute to a Dream.” The following statement was issued by the Center regarding the award

Source: Wikipedia