The choir and church soar: They have TV shows; concerts; a huge following; fame, fortune, and record contracts. As with all success stories, this one involves compromise – a compromise between commercial and personal integrity. Gabriella is turned into a sanitised media myth – and a major star. Fully aware that Gospel has given her the fame that Rock didn’t. Gabriella plays along with this image for media and public consumption, but her personal and artistic frustration is rising. She’s trapped by the persona created around her, and it’s driving her to self-destruction. Brenda, desperately in love with Winston, unconditionally loyal, is increasingly sidelined. Winston has become an icon, a dangerous phenomenon, because he’s starting to believe in the message he is giving; the message of redemption, of small people having power over their own lives, the message of love which is leading Winston Usindiso tells the story of two young female singers, Brenda into political, personal and financial danger zones. (Nomonde Mbusi) and Gabriella (Cody Caprari), and their charismatic, enigmatic leader, Winston (Jet Ka Mgcanabana), using the backdrop of a Gospel singing group and church in the inner city of Johannesburg.
The series deals with the conflict between private and public personas, personal redemption, and public exploitation of the sanitized media spin, between politics and individual choices, between the desire to be a star, and the reality, the tensions Brenda is black, 20 something, feisty, a singer of the jazzy gospel school. Gabriella is white, 17-ish, a Madonna-faced rock chick with attitude. They’ve both been drawn into the world of music and miracles by Winston Langa – an ambitious, flawed dreamer: a preacher, who backs his preaching with a gospel group, led by Brenda, his fiance. They have astounding voices, but don’t grab the punters within and outside of the gospel group, the jealousies, and insecurities that could tear the group apart, or bind them together, the constant conflict between Brenda and Gabriella and Winston until Gabriella’s self-destructive behaviour finally lets Brenda take centre stage, and she’s offered the chance to become the star she always could have been – but without Winston. like they should, because they lack that special spark. Enter Gabriella, a 17-year-old hard drinking, rocking, smoking fallen angel of a girl. And she turns the failing group around.
