MBABANE — Award-winning Eswatini heavyweight Young Zesh is set to close out the year with his most vulnerable and emotive release to date.
The artist is teaming up with celebrated South African singer and songwriter Aubrey Qwana for a powerful new single titled ‘Ubaba’. Scheduled for official release on October 2, 2026, the collaborative track dives deep into the universal themes of fatherhood, loss, family and the indelible memories left behind when someone pivotal departs.
According to Young Zesh, the inspiration behind ‘Ubaba’ stems from intensely personal experiences with grief and the complex realities of remembrance.
“The song speaks about that painful reality of hearing people say, ‘You look like your father’ or ‘You are just like your father,’ while that father is no longer there to witness the person you have become,” Young Zesh shares.
For the artist, the record also carries the heavy weight of unfulfilled promises and the collective sorrow of single motherhood. “It touches on the pain of losing a father before I could accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish for him. It also speaks about the mother who is left behind and the emptiness that comes with losing a husband and a father”, he said.
Rather than anchoring the song solely in sorrow, Young Zesh and Aubrey Qwana approached the project from a place of radical honesty, crafting a piece intended to resonate with anyone navigating loss. “We wanted people to listen to ‘Ubaba’ and think about their own fathers, whether they are still with us or have passed on. It is a song about love, grief, memories, gratitude, and the things we wish we could still say to our fathers.”
The partnership between the two artists grew organically out of shared respect within the Southern African music circuit.
“The collaboration came from the relationship and musical connection that has been developing between myself and Aubrey Qwana. We have crossed paths through music, and I have always respected Aubrey as an artist and storyteller, when the idea for Ubaba came together, it felt natural to have Aubrey on the song because of the way he connects emotionally with people through his music”, he said.
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