Freeda shaking it in Swakop

The girl I met up with is much tinier than I expected. I must admit that this is the first time I see her face-to-face. Previously, I only saw her in their (Gal Level’s) music videos, so the first words I uttered were: “You’re so tiny!,” to which she replies with her signature broad smile “I get that one all the time”.

Freeda Haindaka now resides in Swakopmund. “For the time being,” she says, “I’ll go anywhere as long as I have something to do”.

Haindaka currently graces the floor of Infinity Lounge on Thursday evenings when she holds the mic to self and many a music lover. It’s on everybody’s lips, ‘Karaoke with Freeda’. While I’ve always associated karaoke with private ‘hen’ parties, I found this popular event with Haindaka in the lead quite fun! It was like a ‘jam session’ with other ‘artists’. “It’s all about expressing yourself!”, says the girl with the huge voice.

She tells of how she used to attend similar events in Windhoek and always wondered whether she would be able to sing along to old-time favourite tunes, “and now I just love it”.

Haindaka, to whom singing came quite naturally ever since she was a kid, says she always loved performing. She believes that she has a natural flair for music and is totally smitten by it. Her love affair with music is fed by her uncanny passion for the industry.

Describing herself as a very down-to-earth, simple-at-heart person, she admits that playing the ‘diva’ is also not that hard. Looking at herself as a business person these days with a lot of other skills to offer, she says being a ‘diva’ is just part of her stage persona. “Although I’m quite shy and reserved, I have to put out the energies of courage and self-confidence when on stage and I’ve mastered it. It’s my job, my profession”

Looking beautiful and well-groomed, she says that she’s found the perfect stylist in Swakopmund who creates the more dramatic image her fans love and expect.

Factors which have enabled the dynamic girl to reach this point in her career are what she calls “blessings in the form of people who have believed and invested in me “.

She is currently signed and managed by Deal Done Records based in Windhoek with an upcoming album recorded with only a few music videos to be shot, followed by the official launch.

Not feeling lonely at all after starting out in the industry as part of a group, she says she misses the input of someone else when she composes. But since she collaborated a lot in her Gal Level days with artists like Ees, Exit, Gazza, Mazanga, Shy Man from Zambia and a few others, it is not that bad.

“Of course it took a while to get used to the idea of being solo because of the many advantages one enjoys in a group, for example sharing the responsibilities. Now the responsibility is much more my own”, says Freeda.

Committed in every way, she still prepares for gigs like she used to by meeting up with her dancers and doing rehearsals. “I never underestimate a show.

Every show is important and I put in the same amount of effort, whether it is for five or 50 people”.