Venessa Nolan

Biography

Cape Town-born Venessa Nolan is a South African singer-songwriter whose musical journey began at a young age. Starting piano at six and composing her first song at seven, she quickly demonstrated a natural talent. Venessa’s formal training includes achieving grade eight in classical music through the UNISA syllabus, followed by three years of jazz studies at the University of Cape Town, and culminating in grade eight in contemporary music via the ALMSA syllabus.

A chance encounter with South African indie label Silver Tulip proved pivotal. This led to regular session work, where Venessa’s keyboard skills graced recordings by notable South African artists, including Sony BMG’s Louise Carver. Her time at Silver Tulip not only solidified her reputation as a sought-after session musician but also provided the invaluable opportunity to explore and record her own original material.

Venessa Nolan achieved solo success with the critically acclaimed album Burn, ranked fifth best South African Rock album of the year by the SA Rock Digest. The single “With You” subsequently charted on Cape Town’s 5FM Ericsson Hi5 phone-in show. Several other singles from the album, including “Fragile,” “Emptiness High,” “Glorious Gem,” and “Why,” also performed strongly on the SA Rock Digest charts. Beyond her solo work, Nolan’s voice and keyboard skills have been featured in numerous TV commercials for brands such as Sissy Boy, Old Mutual, and Castrol, and she also contributed to Flat Stanley’s poignant “Song for the Broken Hearted“.

Discography