A US TikTok user has gone viral after calling South African gospel music spooky and surprisingly, many locals agree.
Image: Screenshot/TikTok
Gospel music is meant to comfort you, lift your spirit and maybe have you crying softly in a corner while rethinking your life choices.
But for one American TikTok user, it did the exact opposite - it had him looking over his shoulder like something spiritual (and slightly spooky) was about to happen.
The young man, known as @callmepba, went viral after admitting something many South Africans were not ready to hear but also couldn’t deny.
“Growing up, I used to low-key be scared of South African gospel music,” he said.
Low-key? Please. Some of those songs start, and even you sit up a bit straighter.He explained that it’s not all gospel, just that very specific sound.
“Not all, but it’s a specific kind… the kind that has that ‘whoooh’ feeling to it.”
That “whoooh” is doing a lot of work there, because if you know the music, you felt it in your chest just now.
Let’s break it down. South African a cappella gospel, especially the kind made famous by groups like Amadodana Ase Wesile, does not ease you in.
There’s no gentle intro. No “hi guys, welcome”. It’s straight into deep bass that sounds like it’s coming from under the ground, followed by harmonies that enter like they’ve got somewhere important to be.
That bass? It doesn’t just sit in the background. It arrives. It introduces itself. It pays rent in your chest.
Then the harmonies come in layers, tenors sliding in, altos holding things down, bass singers making our insides vibrate, everyone blending like a spiritual smoothie that gets thicker and more intense as the song goes on.
And because it’s a cappella, there’s nowhere to hide. No instruments to distract you. Just voices doing things that feel slightly illegal.
For someone who didn’t grow up with it, it can genuinely sound… unsettling (LOL).
The slow tempo, the drawn-out notes, the way the voices build and build, it feels less like a song and more like you’ve accidentally joined a live recording of something sacred.
You’re not sure if you must clap, cry or apologise.
But for Mzansi? This is standard.
This is Sunday. This is childhood. It's watching TRACE Gospel on a random day. This is sitting in church, trying not to make eye contact because if you laugh, it’s over for you. This is the one uncle who hits notes that make you question your entire existence.
So yes, to him it was “scary”. To us? It’s elite. It’s powerful. It’s goosebumps on demand. And if we’re being honest… even we know that “whoooh” he’s talking about can catch you off guard.