Dessa loses South African choir planned for Midwest shows due to U.S. visa denials

Dessa is going ahead with a Minneapolis concert and two other Midwest gigs in August, but she will be singing the blues after her South African collaborators in the shows were denied U.S. performance visas following years of regularly playing in America.

The Twin Cities hip-hop star and her would-be collaborators, the 29:11 South African Ensemble — who she met on the Minnesota Orchestra’s tour of South Africa in 2018 — are questioning why the choir is not being allowed into the United States this time around.

“To get a performance visa like this, you have to prove you already have gigs lined up and you’re culturally unique,” Dessa said. “They had the gigs, obviously. In no universe does this ensemble lack profound cultural value.

“I’m completely heartbroken,” she added.

A 12-member choir and band rooted in different South African tribes, 29:11 promotes messages of unity and reconciliation. It states high up on its website that the group “has no political or religious agenda.”

The ensemble was slated to perform with Dessa at the Fine Line in Minneapolis on Aug. 17 as well as four other Midwest concerts. That Fine Line gig will go on without the ensemble, as will two other shows this weekend in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Earlham, Iowa. Two other dates in Chicago and Madison, Wis., have been postponed until December.

The 29:11 troupe also was scheduled for educational workshops at MacPhail Center for Music as well as several appearances at Twin Cities area churches — the kind of mix it usually takes on when it performs in Minnesota.

Talking by phone from outside Cape Town — where he and the other 11 members of the ensemble were living together while preparing for their now-on-hold overseas trip — the bandleader said, “We believe America needs to hear our message right now, which is a message of unity.

“We have overcome tribalism, which is difficult in South Africa, and we have been through apartheid. We practice what we preach and bridge our differences and work to heal.”

News of the visa denials follows increasingly strained relations between the Trump administration and South Africa after claims by President Donald Trump that a “white genocide” is happening there, three decades after the Nelson Mandela-led end to apartheid.

“Where is this genocide they’re talking about?” Adams incredulously asked, also noting, “We stand against violence of any kind.”

Dessa was more blunt in her assessment of the visa denial.

A nationally celebrated rapper, singer and author who has performed sold-out concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra — alongside packing First Avenue and other rock clubs with her various hip-hop groups going back to Doomtree — Dessa recounted meeting the members of 29:11 during that 2018 tour “and losing it” when they sang one of their songs. She taped a PBS-TV “Stage” special with the ensemble in 2023, which sparked the idea for this summer’s live shows.

“I thought people in Minnesota absolutely needed to hear this group,” she said. “And that was before the death of George Floyd, which I believe only makes their music and their lessons all the more important now.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told the Star Tribune it could not comment on the 29:11 case because visa records are confidential under U.S. law. The reasons for the denial were not made clear in the letter to the group informing them their visas had been turned down.

Getting U.S. performance visas has gotten tougher in general for international artists in 2025. Acts ranging from South Korean K-pop band KARD to Mexican regional dance band Grupo Firme to politically rife punk vets the U.K. Subs have been denied visas for reasons not made clear. A logjam of paperwork amid State Department budget and staff cuts could be one culprit.

Locally, the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis — well-known for its international music bookings — already has had to cancel four concerts this year because of visa denials, “way more than usual,” said the venue’s executive director, Michelle Woster. Many international acts also are simply choosing to not book U.S. gigs.