Mynie Grové is a South African singer, songwriter/composer, television personality, publisher, producer, music business activist, business developer, mentor, and life coach who’s been active in the music industry for several years. She was born and raised in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Basic Information
| Birth Name: | Mynie Basson Smith |
| Date of Birth: | November 8, 1949 |
| Age: | 76 years |
| Place of Birth: | Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa |
| Nationality: | South African |
| Occupation: | Singer, songwriter/composer, television personality, entrepreneur |
| Years Active: | 1979 – Present |
| Spouses: | Jan Grové (m. 1972; div. 1978), Chipi van der Merwe (m. 1987; died 1990) |
| Children: | 2 (Jean and Clem) |
Career
Mynie Grové is renowned for songs like Ek Verlang Nog Altyd (with Jan Grové) and children’s songs like Pinocchio and Tien klein Paddatjies.
An example of a famous song she composed is Floating Like an Eagle (for Bles Bridges).
She was a judge on Afrikaanse Idols season 1 in 2006 alongside fellow judges Deon Maas and Taliep Petersen, with Sean Else as the host.
Mynie Grové was actually raised in a musical family on the farm Avondson near Worcester in the Western Cape, and it was very clear from playing the piano by ear at the age of just 3 that she was remarkably talented and that she was set to pursue music formally.
She started composing before she even learnt how to read and later on studied Graphic Design and Music after school but decided to give it up after being discovered by German Producer Claude Larson, and the scene was set.
A young Mynie Grové then entered the music business by performing for German TV’s Rundfunk 1, playing a rosewood babygrand on Signal Hill in a red mini dress and singing her own composition.
Claude Larson decided to move to Cape Town, and Mynie Grové became a founding member of the ‘Claude Larson Singers’. This developed into a duo called ‘Mynie & Jan’, and from there, her star was on the rise.
Claude’s influence grew the Music IQ he recognised within her, and taught her the rudiments of studio production, session work, music arrangement and music publishing.
Grové then went solo on the invitation of Albie Venter of EMI-Brigadiers, later signed with Moonshine Records and formed her own music publishing company, Mailbox Music.
She moved to Johannesburg and joined an exclusive jingle and session singers team.
Mynie Grové became popular with TV audiences through a myriad of TV performances, music series and specials, and was sought after as a ‘personality’ for newspapers, magazine articles and covers.
Mynie Grové was also in the very first multi-racial TV advert, Mobil’s ‘YOU ARE NO.1’, singing in English, Zulu, Sotho and Afrikaans.
She went on to act in two movies and three TV series, but her calling in music was very strong; she performed and recorded with Ringo Madlingozi, Judith Sephuma, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Brenda Fassie, Abigail Kubekha, Richard Jon Smith, Al Etto, Taliep Petersen, Steve Kekana, Blondie & Papa, Babsi Malangene, Jennifer Jones, Vicky Sampson, Big Sky, Laurika Rauch, Anton Goosen, Nataniel, Amanda Strydom, Karen Zoid and Danie Niehaus, among others.
Mynie’s ad hoc ‘Amagroove Youth Choir’ has performed with Josh Groban and Diana Ross and toured South Africa with Michael Bublè in 2007.
She has represented South Africa at at least three international music festivals, and this led to TV appearances across continents, and she has scored movie and TV theme music.
She frequently pushes boundaries, including indigenous languages in her music, even Jazz, hip-hop, and R&B in Afrikaans.
She started her own label, ‘Vusa Records’, and now manages a publishing catalog of her own material of 450 songs/compositions, which includes the evergreen ‘Sweef Soos ‘N Arend’, Always, Gypsy. Among others, European star Dana Winner recorded one of Mynie’s songs on ‘ERGENS IN MIJN HART ’, which went platinum within the first month.
Mynie Grové is an industrious talent and, to prove that, she has served on boards and steering committees of Cape Music Industry Commission, Pansa, Cape Wow and Musa.
She has also partnered with the amalgamation of music unions, negotiated with AAA’s to upgrade Session singers’ fees to equal voice-over artists’, and has assisted previously disadvantaged talents into music industry participation.
Other talents that she counselled with her include FRESHLYGROUND and alternative rock group ZINKPLAAT.
She set up ‘Coastal Artist Network’ to service the coastal music business. This private effort was realised when the Department of Economic Development and Tourism set up the Cape Music Industry Commission, aka CAPEMIC.
Mynie Grové is also working on a 20,000-seat amphitheater hosting international music events, Coastal TV, and a South African Music Radio Station, still on the drawing board, but in her field of vision.
Her own singing career on the back burner, she is rabidly active in the business of music. Mynie trades as AMAGROOVE MUSIC, a music service provider to corporates.
She loves this exciting environment, designing systems and strategies, and encouraging self-development through song.
Mynie Grové believes Music is the therapy that makes everyone function with focus.
The business of ‘EMPOWERING EXPECTATION’ is what makes her DNA dance. She remains the ‘cheerleader’ of development whether it be personal, communal, or coastal.
Marriage
Mynie Grové is not married and doesn’t publicly discuss her love life. She has, however, had two marriages in the past.
First husband
Mynie Grové met her first husband, musician Jan Grové, when she joined the Claude Larsen Singers; they formed the music duo Mynie & Jan and married in 1972. They had a son, Jean, who is Mynie’s oldest child.
The couple would later separate in the late 1970s when Mynie moved to Johannesburg, but she kept the surname Grové professionally.
Second husband
After divorcing Jan, Mynie Grové married Chipi van der Merwe, an advertising executive and actor, in October 1987. She described him as the love of her life. Together, they had a son named Clem.
Chipi tragically died in a car accident in 1990, just four months after their son was born, leading Mynie to step away from the spotlight for several years.
Children
Mynie Grové has two children, both sons. Jean, the eldest son, is from her first marriage to musician Jan Grové. Clem, her second son, is from her second marriage to the late Chipi van der Merwe.
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