Having sold more than 10 million albums worldwide, Rebecca Malope is South Africa's most successful gospel singer and the first one whose songs were played on the radio alongside mainstream pop. And as host of the television show It's Gospel Time since 1994, she’s also carefully cultivated gospel's future. Born into poverty in the township of Kanyamazane, near Nelspruit, in 1968, Malope famously hitchhiked hundreds of kilometers to Johannesburg at age 16 to become a professional singer. Producer Sizwe Zakho recognized her talent, and over the next few years she transitioned from a pop success (both of her 1989 albums went platinum) to a gospel star with the 1992 release of Rebecca Sings Gospel. Noted for a powerful, octave-leaping voice that often sounds on the edge of outright weeping—as heard on her signature "Umoya Wam (My Spirit)”—Malope recorded three dozen albums before declaring her retirement from recording in 2019 after the release of Lord You Are Good.