Lize after Song Night

For Song Night’s final trick, Lize Ehlers invites fans and former Song Night singers into her beautiful home. It’s one of those delightful days where the sky hangs heavy, grey, teasing much needed rain as Lize tries to predict the future.

“We put the whole house outside and inside five times because we thought it would rain,” says the award-winning singer, actress and playwright, gorgeous in a floral blazer and sheer black number at Livega, a low-key and stylish eatery on Luther Street.

As she sips serenely on a tumbler of freshly-squeezed carrot juice, Lize can’t quite believe Song Night’s last show is behind her.

The rain came, mingling with the tears of the platform’s artists and ardent audience and though the farewell was bittersweet, 10 years of “nurturing the Namibian sound” is nothing to sniff at.

Founded in 2011 by a then 22-year-old Lize, Song Night was created in the mould of platforms like Free Your Mind Comedy and Spoken Word. Singers of various levels were invited to audition. Each singer would need to undergo a little voice training before revelling in the thrill of singing, mostly covers, to a paying audience.

Back then, Lize didn’t know of many regularly performing live music stars beyond Erna Chimu and Ras Sheehama and wanted to see who was waiting in the wings.

“We just opened a door and all the people who could sing walked in,” says Lize. “Suddenly, we had all these new voices through the platform. They were performing everywhere, and they were making people feel sexy. Sean K made people believe that there was a local John Legend.”

Over the years, Song Night evolved from a fun evening of backtracks and covers to a singing, dancing, often packed live show mainly at the Warehouse Theatre before weathering the pandemic storm with a slick online production featuring singer-songwriters performing original music accompanied by the legendary Song Night Band.

“It’s nice to know that there are these figures in our society, people with voices and stories to tell,” says Lize who will continue to promote singers through the Song Night Agency but who hopes Song Night’s legacy has done its part as a job and culture creator.

“I want people in the communities to step up like we’ve challenged everyone to do. I want to know that there is a regular Song Night in Outapi and that they can have these beautiful voices telling local stories,” says Lize.

“Locally, in Windhoek, I need more corporates to say: ‘Wow, we miss Song Night so much! We want to have Bradley or Priscilla sing at the Country Club during lunch and we will pay them this amount, and we want them on a regular basis’,” she says.

“The plan all along was that we secure paying gigs for the people who have gone through Song Night and are keeping their repertoires interesting and delicious and alive.”

Though Song Night’s original format is over, chiefly due to a lack of sponsorship and funding to continue the show on a regular basis, Lize welcomes what lies ahead.

“Song Night was such a mass production that every time it was done, I couldn’t sleep for two days because I was just physically and mentally past my breaking point and that’s something I wanted to say goodbye to – the headless chicken run,” says Lize who adds that post-Song Night ​she has been weeping and has fallen into a cloud of exhaustion.

“I would like to watch more sunsets with my husband. I want to have more fun with my kids. I want to get over my fear of dogs by walking our dog,” she says.

“I want to get over stuff that I’ve just been parking because I’ve been working on Song Night. For 10 years, I was either planning, promoting or doing agency work for it. Song Night served me and it served the community but that can’t be the alpha and omega of my existence because there are other things that I love to do right now.”

As she adds DJ Rise Elders to her two alter egos – Lize Ehlers the playwright and performer and the chanting Afrofuturist Mokazaluma – Lize, who is currently working on an edgier 7 th album, is excited to tap into a whole new performance persona.

“Rise Elders. I wanted a DJ name that could make me feel the way I feel when I deejay which is just something beyond. It’s like your bones start whispering,” says Lize excitedly.

“Sonically, you’re hearing a lot of ambient music mixed with really hectic gangsta hip hop and then I go into any genre the occasion allows me,” she says. “It’s very intuitive and that makes me happy.”

A return to happiness as well as to mental and physical health is also high on Lize’s agenda post-Song Night.

“I want to get my health back,” she says. “I love fashion and I want to wear what I want to wear. I feel like I’ve been very respectful with my aesthetic. I want to venture a little bit on the crazy, go nuts kind of vibe.”

Intent on rest and reimagining, Lize plans to take a little advice from Just Show Up, a rousing ballad from her album Change.

“I’m going to show up for myself.”

Martha Mukaiwa is a columnist and writer based in Windhoek, Namibia in between spirited sojourns around the world. Her narrative nonfiction, personal essays, travel writing and short stories have appeared in Travel Africa, Quartz, Fields & Stations, Holiday, The Africa Report, Truthdig, Matador Network, Africa is a Country, The Namibian & The Kalahari Review. Martha is an honorary writing fellow at the University of Iowa. Read more at marthamukaiwa.com.