Greatest Hits: The Queen of African Pop (1964–2004)
album by Brenda Fassie
Greatest Hits: The Queen of African Pop (1964–2004) is a posthumous greatest hits album by South African Afro-pop singer Brenda Fassie. The album was released on November 30, 2004 via EMI Music Distribution.
Background
Fassie died aged 39 on 9 May 2004, in hospital in Sunninghill without returning to consciousness after her life support machines were turned off following an asthma attack which led to cardio-respiratory arrest and subsequent brain damage.
The album was released months after her death. The album features a selection of Fassie's greatest hits including "Weekend Special", "Vulindlela", "Black President" and more from previous albums. The album also includes notes written by her son Bongani "Bongz" Fassie.
EMI donated the sales of the album to the Nelson Mandela HIV/AIDS 46664 foundation to help improve the lives of those infected and affected by the disease all over Africa.
Critical reception
In a positive review for AllMusic, Wade Kergan said, "Brenda Fassie's best-known song is the Afro-pop R&B crossover "Weekend Special," which introduced her strong voice and polished productions to the world outside of her South African home. It wasn't an overnight success, though. "Weekend Special" was recorded in 1983 and slowly gained momentum until it finally snuck into the Billboard charts in 1986, opening doors to world tours and a seat among the elite of Afro-pop.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Greatest Hits: The Queen of African Pop (1964–2004)” as album by Brenda Fassie. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as album by Brenda Fassie. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55612965. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 2004, 1983 and 1986.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Greatest Hits: The Queen of African Pop (1964–2004)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.