Sister Duo SAI HLE Step Onto South Africa’s Biggest Stage at Red Bull Symphonic 2026
The Koom sisters lend their voices to Sun-El Musician’s “Koyika” before a sold-out, nationally broadcast audience, marking the most significant performance yet in a fast-rising career, with new music arriving in August.
South African sister duo SAI HLE took to the stage at Red Bull Symphonic 2026 this month, performing alongside a full symphonic orchestra in front of two sold-out audiences and a national television broadcast. It is the largest stage the duo, sisters Siphosethu and Amahle Koom, have performed on to date, and a defining moment in a career that has been building quietly and deliberately toward exactly this kind of arrival.
Held at Montecasino in Johannesburg on 13 and 14 June, this year’s edition of Red Bull Symphonic made history of its own. Under the banner Afro House, Our Home, it was the first time in the global series two headliners shared a single stage, house pioneer Sun-El Musician and Durban powerhouse Dlala Thukzin, their catalogues reimagined by Maestro Chad Hendricks and the Red Bull Symphonic Orchestra. Night two streamed live on SABC 1, making it the first Red Bull Symphonic ever broadcast live on a national external broadcaster. SAI HLE featured within that landmark production, delivering the vocals on Sun-El Musician’s “Koyika.”
A Breakout Moment, Years in the Making
For most audiences watching, the harp-led opening of “Koyika” was a first encounter with SAI HLE. For the sisters, it was the culmination of a journey that began in church choirs in the Gauteng and carried them through Germiston, a six-month residency performing across Spain, and a steady run of credits that have made them one of the most quietly in-demand vocal acts in South African dance, house and amapiano music scenes.
Born in Gqeberha and raised between the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, Siphosethu and Amahle Koom were singing harmonies before they were teenagers, coached first by their mother. Their professional career began in 2021, and in the years since they have lent their voices to tracks with Karyendasoul, BokkieUlt, Marcus Harvey and podcast host MacG, and performed as the sole musical act at a presidential event for President Cyril Ramaphosa focused on women’s rights. In 2024 they signed an exclusive global deal with UK label Platoon, alongside mentor Khuli Chana and manager Phenyo Kgaffe of My Throne Group, positioning them to grow as Africa’s sister duo on the world stage.
Red Bull Symphonic now stands as the most visible proof point yet of that trajectory, a performance of a scale none of their earlier milestones could match, arriving at the moment the duo prepares for its biggest year.
The Audience Took Notice
The response to the performance on the official livestream was immediate, and notably, much of it came from viewers discovering the duo for the first time. “We are in your world now,” wrote one viewer. “First time hearing that song but I am in love,” wrote another. The reactions arrived from across the continent and beyond, including messages of support from as far as Kenya, a small but telling sign of the cross-border pull the duo has been building toward.
In Their Words
“Standing on that stage, with an orchestra behind us and the whole country watching, felt like every choir rehearsal and every late night finally meant something,” said SAI HLE. “We have always believed that from little, much can come. This was that belief made real. To everyone who found us through ‘Koyika’: welcome. There is so much more coming.”
“SAI HLE have done the unglamorous work for years, the features, the choirs, the rooms that do not make headlines,” said Phenyo Kgaffe, Managing Director of My Throne Group. “Red Bull Symphonic is the stage that matches the talent. What people saw on that broadcast is not a beginning. It is a duo arriving exactly on time.”
The Look, and the Arrival
The sisters were dressed for both nights by celebrated South African designer Rich Mnisi, whose pieces carried the duo from the dressing room to the stage across the weekend. Mitsubishi drove SAI HLE to both performances, completing an arrival that matched the scale of the moment.
What’s Next
SAI HLE follow the Symphonic performance with a new single in August, with further releases and a debut EP to come as the duo continues an international roadmap spanning Africa and Europe through 2026-2027. Their current single, “UBUMNND,” is out now across all platforms.
