| Intro | South African musician and composer |
| Is |
Musician Composer Saxophonist Film score composer |
| From | South Africa |
| Type |
Film, TV, Stage & Radio Music |
| Gender | male |
| Birth |
19 August 1939, Johannesburg |
| Age | 81 years |
Caiphus Semenya (born 19 August 1939) is a South African composer and musician. He left South Africa for Los Angeles in the 1960s, together with his wife, singer Letta Mbulu. Among the artists with whom he worked are Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, Hotep Galeta, Miriam Makeba, Lou Rawls, Nina Simone and Cannonball Adderley. Semenya also arranged the Swahili chant in the intro to Michael Jackson’s “Liberian Girl” from the 1987 Bad album.
Awards
- 2015: South African Afro Music Awards
- 2015: ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Music
- 1986: Academy Award for Best Original Score for the 1985 film The Color Purple; shared the nomination with nine other composers.
- Motale, Phalane (13 September 2015). “New awards to honour Afro musos”. iol.co.za/.
- “Caiphus Semenya: ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Music”. creativefeel.co.za. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
- “THE 58TH ACADEMY AWARDS: 1986”. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. oscars.org. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
Solo albums
- The Very Best of Caiphus Semenya (Columbia, 1996)
- Woman Got a Right to Be (1996)
- Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow (Munjale, 1984)
- Listen to the Wind (CBS, 1982)