How DJ Groove Terminator came to collaborate with the Soweto Gospel Choir

When Soweto Gospel Choir singer Phello Jiyane heard she would be performing a show about house music, she was a little surprised.

"You wouldn't expect to have that combination of a DJ and gospel singers in the club scene," she tells ABC's Compass.

Hailing from the township of Soweto in South Africa, many of the choir members are deeply spiritual. Growing up, gospel was a means to connect with God.

Since forming in 2002, the choir's unique sound — and powerful messages of hope and resistance — have attracted fans around the world, including Australian musician Simon Lewicki, better known as DJ Groove Terminator.

"The choir's religious, and I get that 'cause the dance floor [is] my church," explains Lewicki.

Back in 2019, after watching the Soweto Gospel Choir perform at the Sydney Opera House, Lewicki approached the group with an interesting proposition: to collaborate on a project about house music.

The choir's Mary Mulovhedzi remembers her initial response was one of confusion.

"Our audience and his audience — two different people," she says.

While the choristers looked at Lewicki "a little strangely", he persevered with the idea.

"I see the themes of … unity and freedom and joy — it could be a really powerful thing," he told them.

They were convinced, and the show that would become History of House was born.

"We loved the challenge," says Mulovhedzi. "That's why we decided, why not?"

The Australian backstory

The connection between the Soweto Gospel Choir and Australia runs deep.

Twenty-two years ago, Melbourne-based theatrical producer and concert promoter Andrew Kay had long wanted to bring an African choir to local shores.

Unable to find a suitable fit, Kay and colleagues approached a local Soweto churchman to help them put a choir together.

"I was the stupid one who said, 'Let's do this!'" says Kay, who continues to produce and manage the choir today.

He brought them to Australia, and the Soweto Gospel Choir performed their first-ever international tour.

Soon after, they were working with some of the world's biggest musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion and U2, and performing for world leaders, such as Barack Obama.

Despite their global success, it's Australia they call their second home.

The choristers have become regular visitors, performing with the Central Australian Aboriginal Women's Choir, appearing on TV and radio, and making many friends along the way, including DJ Groove Terminator.

After proposing the collaboration to the choir, Simon Lewicki flew to South Africa in 2020 to spend time with the group and workshop their new show.

History of House takes audiences on a musical journey from the disco era of the 70s through to the birth of house music, and its incarnations in the 80s and 90s.

It spans from Aretha Franklin's A Deeper Love, to Donna Summer's disco classic I Feel Love, to house hits like Good Life by Inner City.

As the choir and Simon developed the project, a bond formed between them that extended beyond the music.

"[Lewicki took time] to be with us and listen to our stories … Look at where we live, how we live," says choirmaster Shimmy Jiyane.

"That touched us."

Apartheid and the Soweto Uprising

Growing up in South Africa, the members of the choir were all affected by apartheid, many witnessing violence and brutality as children.

"It was tough," says Thabiso Molefe. "If you were a man, or if you were a boy, [the police] would beat you up. So, we used to wear ladies' clothes."

"I was asking my mother, 'Mamma, why am I wearing a dress?' They would say, 'The police are coming, they will grab you up'."

Apartheid was a policy of racial segregation and oppression, enforced by the South African government between 1948 to 1994, which separated housing and employment opportunities by race, privileging white citizens over everyone else.

Public transport, parks, beaches, theatres, restaurants, and other amenities were segregated for "coloured" and "whites", and inter-racial marriages were prohibited.

Entrenched racial inequality also extended to education.

In June 1976, the choir members' home — Soweto — was the site of one of South Africa's worst race riots.

Black students started a peaceful protest to oppose a government policy that forced them learn in Afrikaans, a West Germanic language largely associated with their oppressor.

Most black students already had to learn English as a second language, and many black teachers complained they didn't know Afrikaans well enough to teach in it.

The police brutality that followed the protest shocked the world.

Choir member Phello Jiyane recalls hearing stories from her mother, a student at the time, about how young people in the town mobilised together.

"They were walking down the streets in Soweto, and singing and chanting," she says.

Phello's husband, Shimmy Jiyane, calls it the day when "everything changed".

"That was a sad day for South Africa," he says.

While exact numbers are hard to determine, records suggest hundreds died and thousands were injured due to those and other protests.

Many credit the Soweto uprising and its aftermath to helping end apartheid in South Africa.

Finding hope in music

Music played a major role during the Soweto uprising.

"There's a song that is called Umandela Uthi Ayihlome Ihlasele," says Mulovhedzi.

"That song says, 'Let us go fight back'."

Today, Mulovhedzi and the choir continue to sing those protest songs as part of their solo show, called Hope.

It's a deeply spiritual performance, featuring songs from church, the apartheid struggle, as well as the African American civil rights movement.

"On stage, we're smiling, we're praying, but inside there's so much that we are going through," says Mulovhedzi.

"I think I pray from song number one, until the last song."

For Shimmy Jiyane the songs from Hope inspired him to believe that change was possible during the dark days of apartheid.

"The songs that we're singing … they gave us so much power," he says.

"Cause right now, I'm in Australia … And it is because of what happened, it is because of the people who fought for us."

'All are welcome here'

Growing up in South Australia, musician Simon Lewicki had an entirely different connection to music.

The DJ-in-the-making found himself drawn to house music, a genre that sprang from underground clubs in Chicago and New York in the late 70s and early 80s.

Like gospel, house music also has political roots.

As the disco era declined, DJs began playing house music predominantly to queer, black and Latino communities in warehouses and safe spaces.

Indeed, songs by artists like Chuck Roberts and Jungle Brothers take audiences on a sonic and sensory journey in History of House.

For many around the world, including Lewicki, the house genre came to be associated with values like inclusivity and diversity.

"I'm from Adelaide, I'm not from Chicago. I didn't grow up at in ground zero," says Lewicki.

Lewicki realised his passion for music, by becoming a DJ.

Under the stage name of Groove Terminator, he became a favourite at clubs and went on to receive ARIA nominations and make several hit singles.

These days, Lewicki lives in Byron Bay with his family.

Like him, they've formed a friendship with the members of the Soweto Gospel Choir.

Lewicki's daughters, in particular, are big fans.

"They tend to think they're in the choir sometimes," says Lewicki.

The admiration runs both ways.

"Simon … he's part of our family," says Soweto Gospel Choir singer Phello Jiyane.

"He comes and prays with us. He might not be religious but the fact that he's there and he's respecting what we are doing, we just love him for that."

Watch The DJ and the Gospel Choir on Compass tonight at 6:30pm on ABC TV or stream now on iview.