Biography
Auriol Hays is a genre-defying South African singer-songwriter, cultural archivist, and interdisciplinary practitioner whose work spans music, storytelling, and public engagement. With seven albums and three EPs, she moves fluidly across jazz, blues, soul,and reggaeton, performing in English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Pedi, and Portuguese. Her work is widely recognised for its emotional depth and narrative clarity, described as a voice “entirely and completely her own” by Zakes Mda.
Her debut album Behind Closed Doors produced chart-topping singles and earned a SAMA nomination, establishing a career rooted in what she terms “awareness through music.” This trajectory continues through projects such as Dreaming Music and Silk and Gravel, which explore themes of social justice, memory, and identity.Beyond performance, Hays works as a cultural conduit. She served as an Erasmus+
Cultural Ambassador (2017–2020) and later led programming at Eden FM, documenting regional artistic voices. Her long-form audio archive further reflects her commitment to preserving creative narratives.
Hays has performed at major festivals including the Montreux Jazz Festival and Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Her work extends into film and international collaborations, positioning her as a distinctive voice in contemporary South African musicand performance.
Synopsis
Nina in the City: A Voice Interrupts Public Space proposes to bring Simone’s recorded voice into Cape Town’s public spaces, creating an encounter between her words and the lived realities of the contemporary city. Rather than presenting a conventional stage performance, the work is conceived as an intervention: fragments of Simone’s speaking and singing voice will be introduced into everyday environments — streets, public squares, and transitional urban spaces — where audiences encounter the work unexpectedly. In this way, the performance aligns with the festival’s emphasis on engaging both intentional and incidental audiences.
These audio fragments, drawn from interviews, speeches, and live recordings, will serve as points of entry. They are often direct, confrontational, and, at times, deeply vulnerable or unexpectedly humorous. Each fragment opens a threshold out of which live performance emerges — voice, piano, and percussion responding in real time. This creates a dialogue between archival sound and present, embodied expression, allowing Simone’s voice to move through the city as both memory and provocation.
In addition to Simone’s repertoire, the performance incorporates my original compositions that respond to themes within a South African context, a continuation of the conversation she began. One such composition, Call It Murder, reflects on contemporary violence and systemic injustice that persist today. Through this interplay between historical material and new composition, the performance situates Simone’s legacy within the present moment. To further localise the work, recorded voices from members of the public will be woven into the soundscape. These contributions — brief reflections, statements, or testimonies — will anchor the performance within the specific social and political realities of Cape Town. In doing so, the work creates a layered sonic environment in which Simone’s voice is not isolated, but placed in conversation with the city itself.
