IN: Labelle is an American all-female singing group who were a popular vocal group of the 1960s and 1970s. The group was formed after the disbanding of two rival girl groups in the Philadelphia/Trenton areas, the Ordettes and the Del-Capris, forming as a new version of the former group, later changing their name to The Blue Belles (later Bluebelles). The founding members were Patti LaBelle (formerly Patricia Holt), Cindy Birdsong, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. As The Bluebelles, and later Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, the group found success with ballads in the doo-wop genre, most notably "Down the Aisle (The Wedding Song)", "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "Over the Rainbow".

In 1959, a fifteen-year-old teenager, Patricia "Patti" Holt won her first talent contest in high school. Following this, she sought to form her own singing group the following year called the Ordettes. Holt formed the group with singers Jean Brown, Yvonne Hogen and Johnnie Dawson. The group gained a local following. Dawson was eventually replaced by Sundray Tucker. By 1961, Jean Brown and Yvonne Hogan had ditched the group to get married and Patti and Sundray carried on as soloists. Later in 1961, Patti and Sundray's manager Bernard Montague contacted two singers from the Trenton, NJ singing group the Del-Capris, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. Eventually Hendryx and Dash became official replacements for Brown and Hogan as the Ordettes. The group soon began working diligently by musician Morris Bailey. Bailey and Montague's schedule led to Tucker's parents to disband her from the group. Eventually, another singer, Cindy Birdsong, from Camden, New Jersey, was allowed to join the group after an audition, under the advice of Patti. The group soon toured the chitlin' circuit, gaining a following in the eastern U.S. In 1962, Chicago-based group The Starlets had traveled to Philadelphia to do sessions for producer Bobby Martin and record label owner Harold Robinson, president of Newtown Records. One of the sessions included a cover of the standard, "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman". At the time of the song's release, the group had a hit with the song "Better Tell Him No" and were unable to promote the song due to them being signed to another label. The song was credited under the name "The Blue Belles". The Ordettes auditioned by singing the song. Before hearing the group, Robinson turned them down due to being unimpressed with Patti's looks but upon hearing Patti singing, he changed his mind and signed the group to Newtown. When "I Sold My Heart" became popular, Robinson sent the Ordettes to promote it under the assumed name of the Blue Belles. After a televised performance at American Bandstand featuring the Ordettes, the Starlets' manager sued Harold Robinson and Bobby Martin. Around the same time, Robinson was also sued for having another group use the name "Blue Belles". Following the aftermath of the ordeals, Robinson gave Patti Holt a new name, "Patti LaBelle", and the group's name was rechristened as "Patti LaBelle and The Blue Belles".
QUESTION: Who did they find influential?
IN: Born and raised in Mbewuleni, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, Mbeki is one of four children of Epainette and Govan Mbeki. The economist Moeletsi Mbeki is one of his brothers. His father was a stalwart of the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party. He is a native Xhosa speaker.

In January 1975, just a few months after his marriage to Zanele, Mbeki was sent to Swaziland to assess the possibility of setting up an ANC frontline base in the country. Ostensibly attending a UN conference, Mbeki was accompanied by Max Sisulu. The duo met with Sisulu's sister, Lindiwe Sisulu, who was studying at the University at Swaziland. Lindiwe set up a meeting for the two at the home of S'bu Ndebele, then a librarian at the university. Mbeki and Sisulu held meetings in Swaziland for a week with South Africans studying there to assess the situation. They returned to Lusaka after a week, when their visas had expired. Mbeki reported back to the ANC that the possibility of establishing an ANC base in Swaziland was promising, especially because of its location, as it was close to Johannesburg and Durban. As a result, Mbeki was sent back to Swaziland to recruit soldiers for the organisation's military wing. In Swaziland, Mbeki recruited hundreds of people into the ANC. He also liaised with Buthelezi and the latter's newly formed Inkatha movement, and set up structures within South Africa. Mbeki's aim was to establish contact with as many Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) members as he could and to draw them into the ANC. Ironically, while Mbeki was converting BC adherents into ANC members, he would himself absorb many aspects of BC ideology. In March 1976, Mbeki, Albert Dhlomo and Jacob Zuma were arrested in Swaziland, but the trio managed to escape deportation to South Africa. Instead, a month after their arrest, they were escorted across the border to Mozambique. From there, Mbeki went back to Lusaka for a few months before being posted to Nigeria in January 1977. Before leaving Lusaka, Mbeki was appointed as deputy to Duma Nokwe in the Department of Information and Propaganda (DIP). Mbeki's mission in Nigeria was to establish diplomatic relations with Olusegun Obasanjo's regime, - a mission that proved to be quite successful as Mbeki was to build a lasting relationship with the Nigerian authorities, eclipsing the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in Nigeria. Zanele, who was running the Africa offices of the International University Education Fund in Lusaka, spent much of 1977 with her husband in Nigeria. In 1978, Mbeki became political secretary in the office of Oliver Tambo. He became a close confidant of Tambo, advising him on all matters and writing many of his speeches. One of his duties as secretary was to choose a theme each year in accordance with the ANC's current activities - 1979, for example, was known as "The Year of the Spear", while 1980 was "The Year of the Charter." From 1979, with Mbeki as his right-hand man, Tambo began building up the guerrilla movement into an internationally recognised guardian of South African freedom.
QUESTION:
What happened in swaziland?