For generations, country music has been part of the musical landscape in homes across the country.
Parents, aunties and uncles would listen to American country artists such as Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Shania Twain and Dolly Parton, while South African musicians developed their own interpretations of the genre.
It was announced via her Instagram page on 25 August 2026, that the beloved singer Dolly Parton died in Nashville at the age of 80. Parton's death offers a reason to look beyond the remarkable career of the “Queen of Country” and consider why the music she helped define has remained so familiar to South African listeners.
There is an intimacy to country music that can turn stories of love, loss, hardship and home into something universal.
The genre’s particular combination of instrumentation, vocal style and storytelling has always been a stand out.
South Africa’s relationship with country music goes beyond American stars. The imported sound became part of local listening culture, was translated into local languages and eventually developed an identity of its own.
When country music took root
Country music began taking root in South Africa during the 1950s and 1960s, helped considerably by radio and records.
Founder and Broadcaster of independent digital station Radio X5 Stereo and presenter of its “Country Klanke” programme, Phil Jansen, has seen that relationship with the genre from behind the microphone.
His programme won the 2026 SACMAF (SA Country Music Association and Foundation) award for Best Country Music Programme.
“The growth was strongly driven by radio and records, which brought international artists into South African homes,” Jansen said.
“There was also something very familiar about the stories in country music. South Africans could identify with songs about family, relationships, loneliness, working life, hardship, and ordinary people. Country music didn't require you to be American to understand it. The emotions were universal.
“Over time, it became much more than imported American music. It became part of the listening culture of generations of South Africans,” he said.
Radio gave that music genre a place in everyday life. Before streaming, YouTube and social media, programmes dedicated to particular genres could introduce listeners to artists they might otherwise never have encountered.
“Country programs created a dedicated space where listeners could hear new artists, discover older recordings, and develop a relationship with the music and the presenter,” Jansen said.
“A good country music program was not simply about playing songs; it was about creating a community around the music.”
That relationship could last well beyond the broadcast itself. Jansen said listeners often attach particular memories to country songs, remembering where they were, who they were with and what was happening in their lives when they first heard them.
It is also difficult to talk about the history of country music in South Africa without talking about Jim Reeves.
Jim Reeves and the beginning of the obsession
There was a time when Reeves’ voice seemed to follow family life everywhere: playing from the radio in the kitchen, filling the car on a long drive with your grandmother’s boiled eggs in the cooler box or drifting through the house while everyone got on with their day.
Songs such as “He’ll Have to Go”, “Welcome to My World” and “I Love You Because” became familiar far beyond the traditional country music audience.
Reeves’ popularity in South Africa was remarkable. Academic research has described his following here as “overwhelming and lasting”, while documenting his South African tours in 1962 and 1963.
A 1964 survey of record-buying habits also placed Reeves ahead of Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley among the artists surveyed.
By 1969, Billboard was describing country music as having an “impressive share” of South Africa’s record market, while noting the popularity of Afrikaans translations of American and British country material.
Reeves was hardly the only American country artist to find an audience here.
Johnny Cash gave us “Ring of Fire”, Patsy Cline had “Crazy”, Kenny Rogers had “The Gambler” and Dolly Parton had “Jolene” and “9 to 5”. These songs crossed the boundaries of the country music audience and became part of the wider soundtrack of South African life.
Country music is not for “old souls”, as is often perpetuated. Its stories of love, loss, family, work, leaving home and starting again do not belong to one generation.
For Jansen, Reeves' appeal lay in the same emotional directness that helped country music travel in the first place.
“Jim Reeves is a perfect example of why country music travelled so successfully. His voice was warm, smooth, and incredibly distinctive, and his songs were built around emotion and storytelling rather than simply musical performance.
“He could sing about love, loss, loneliness, and relationships in a way that felt personal. You didn't have to understand the American background of a song to understand the feeling behind it.
“I think that is one of country music's greatest strengths. It speaks directly to the human experience. Jim Reeves also had a sound that appealed beyond traditional country listeners, which helped bring the genre into mainstream homes.”
Reeves visited South Africa in 1962 following huge album sales and was met by crowds of fans. He later recorded two Afrikaans albums and starred in “Kimberley Jim”, a local musical featuring music by South African musicians including Nico Carstens, Anton de Waal and Gilbert Gibson.
The local appetite continued to grow. Lance James, known as the “Big Daddy” of South African country music, spent decades promoting the genre and began presenting “Keep It Country” on Springbok Radio in 1976.
Barbara Ray became a local country favourite, Bobby Angel earned the title “King of Country” and Clive Bruce later brought the genre to television with “Sing Country”.
Country music was no longer simply something South Africans were importing from America. It was becoming something they could recognise as their own.
When country found a local voice
That transformation did not happen at one particular moment. It came as South African musicians began taking the sounds and themes they had inherited from American country music and applying them to their own lives.
“I think the transition happened gradually rather than at one particular moment. Once South African artists began taking the musical language of country music and combining it with our own stories, languages, and experiences, a distinctly South African identity started developing,” Jansen said.
“The important thing is that South African country music doesn't have to imitate Nashville to be country music. Our artists can sing about our towns, our families, our relationships, our landscapes, and our experiences.
“That is when country music becomes truly local, when the music starts telling our stories in our own voice.”
Theuns Jordaan and Juanita du Plessis became important figures in that later development.
Jordaan’s songs such as “Soos Bloed”, “Sal Jy Bly” and “Hongerhart” brought country influences into a distinctly Afrikaans musical setting, while Du Plessis built a catalogue moving between country, pop and traditional Afrikaans sounds.
Jansen says their contribution was not simply about keeping country music alive but showing that it could belong within South Africa's own musical landscape.
“Artists such as Theuns Jordaan demonstrated that country music could be deeply South African while still retaining the emotional qualities that people associate with the genre. His songwriting and voice connected with people because his music felt genuine.
“Juanita du Plessis has also played an important role in keeping country music visible and accessible to a broad South African audience.
Artists like these have helped ensure that country music is not regarded simply as an old American genre. They have shown that there is a place for country music in our own musical landscape.”
That local identity also helps explain why the genre has been able to move beyond the communities where it first found popularity.
“Whether you live on a farm, in a small town or in a major South African city, people experience love, heartbreak, family problems, financial difficulties, hope, loneliness and loss,” Jansen said.
“Country music has always been particularly good at putting those everyday experiences into simple, emotional stories. You can hear a song and immediately recognise yourself, or someone you know, in it.
“That is why I believe country music has the ability to cross cultural and generational boundaries,” he said.
South African audiences have also been willing to mix country with other influences rather than treating it as a fixed American format.
“There is a strong appreciation here for storytelling, melody, and lyrics that mean something. I also think South African listeners have never been afraid to mix country with other musical influences,” Jansen says.
“Our relationship with country music is therefore not simply about copying what happens in America. We have absorbed it, adapted it, and connected it to our own experiences.”
A genre that keeps changing
Now, artists such as Dodo Nyoka are stretching that identity again.
Born in the DRC and raised in the Eastern Cape, Nyoka sings in Afrikaans, despite Xhosa and French being his mother tongues.
His music includes songs such as “Country Girl van Bloem”, “Jannaman”, “Foto’s” and “Ek Verstaan”, blending country influences with contemporary Afrikaans music.
His emergence also illustrates how differently younger listeners encounter music.
Jansen believes there is renewed interest among younger audiences, even if they do not necessarily identify as traditional country fans.
“Yes, I believe there is renewed interest among younger listeners, although they may not necessarily describe themselves as traditional country music fans.
“Young people are discovering country through streaming platforms, TikTok, YouTube, and artists who blend country with pop, rock, folk, and other contemporary sounds. There is also a growing appreciation for authenticity. Country music often feels very honest and personal, and that is something younger audiences respond to.
Younger listeners can encounter country music through contemporary songs on streaming platforms and social media, then work backwards to discover earlier artists such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell and Jim Reeves.
Dodo Nyoka is also an example of how social media has changed who can find an audience.
“Absolutely. Social media has completely changed music discovery,” Jansen said. “Radio remains incredibly important, but TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms can put a song or artist in front of millions of people who would never necessarily tune into a traditional country music program.
"An artist such as Dodo Nyoka can build an audience directly through social media and demonstrate that country music is not limited to one age group or one community."
For Jansen, the two forms of discovery can exist alongside each other.
“I see social media as complementary to radio rather than a replacement for it. Radio provides curation, personality, and companionship, while social media provides enormous opportunities for discovery and sharing.”
Nyoka’s presence complicates some of those assumptions. A black South African artist singing Afrikaans country music and finding an audience demonstrates how much room there is within the local genre for voices that previous generations may not have expected to hear there.
The music can accommodate those changes because its central concerns remain familiar.
Jansen does not see what is happening now as a simple comeback.
“I think it is both. There is definitely a new wave of interest, particularly because digital platforms have made country music accessible to a completely new generation. But I don't think we should describe it as a genre that has suddenly returned."
According to Jansen, country music never disappeared from South Africa. Instead, older listeners and a younger generation discovering the genre through digital platforms are now meeting in the same musical space, with the technology changing but the emotional connection remaining.
“In that sense, country music in South Africa isn't simply experiencing a comeback. It is continuing to evolve.”
From Jim Reeves and Theuns Jordaan to Juanita du Plessis and the new generation represented by Dodo Nyoka, the sound has continued to shift while holding on to the things that made people fall in love with it in the first place, a good story, a memorable melody and a song that understands something about life.
bernelee.vollmer@nationalmg.co.za