Fassie was born in Langa, Cape Town as the youngest of nine children. She was named after the American singer Brenda Lee. Her father died when she was two, and with the help of her mother, a pianist, she started earning money by singing for tourists.
In 1981, at the age of 16, she left Cape Town for Soweto, Johannesburg, to seek her fortune as a singer.
Fassie first joined the group Joy and later became the lead singer for a music group called Brenda and the Big Dudes. She had a son, Bongani, in 1985 by a fellow Big Dudes musician. She married Nhlanhla Mbambo in 1989 but divorced in 1991. Her song enjoyed great international popularity, and Brenda and the Big Dudes toured to the United States, Britain, Europe, Australia and Brazil. Throughout the decade Brenda also established herself as a great solo pop star.
In 1989 she married Nhlanhla Mlambo, and the next year they were both sued for fraud. In August of 1990 newspaper announced the break-up of their marriage. Her drug and alcohol abuse as well as her bisexuality also received much media attention. Fassie became addicted to cocaine around 1989 and her career suffered the effect of this bad attitude in 1995, she underwent rehabilitation and got her career back on track. However, she still had drug problems and returned to drug rehabilitation clinics about 30 times in her life.
From 1996 she released several solo albums, including Now Is the Time, Memeza (1997), and Nomakanjani?. Most of her albums became multi-platinum sellers in South Africa; Memeza was the best-selling album in South Africa in 1998.
On the morning of 26 April 2004, Fassie collapsed at her home in Buccleuch, Gauteng, and was admitted into a hospital in Sunninghill. While her family gave the impression that she had suffered cardiac arrest and slipped into a coma brought on by an asthma attack; the post-mortem report revealed that she had taken an overdose of cocaine on the night of her collapse, and this was the cause of her coma.
Fassie an unofficial adopted daughter of Madiba, was visited in the hospital by Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki, and her condition was front-page news in South African papers.
Brenda voted 17th in the Top 100 Great South Africans, died on 9 May 2004 in hospital without returning to consciousness after her life support machines were turned off. She was aged 39. Her body was laid to rest on 23 May in her hometown, Langa. She left behind a 19-year-old son, Bongani Fassie.
In March 2006 a life-size bronze sculpture of Fassie by artist Angus Taylor was installed outside Bassline, a music venue in Johannesburg.
Brenda Fassie was an all around great entertainer: Great dancer, singer and comedian may her gentle soul continue to rest in peace.
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