Catching babies, gynae clinics and stardom
Pierre moved from Tygerburg to eMalahleni, and says that he was pleasantly surprised
Dr Pierre Nel is a 26-year-old medical doctor currently doing his obstetrics and gynaecology rotation at Witbank Provincial Hospital – but that certainly isn’t a fitting full description of him and who he is.
You see, Dr Pierre Nel’s secret persona isn’t Superman, it’s a songbird.
Pierre recently released ‘Besluiteloos’ (roughly translated as ‘Undecided’); an Afrikaans love song written by the famed Riana Nel.
Besluiteloos has gained airtime on South Africa’s radio waves, as well as having been picked up and played by KykNet.
Pierre was born in Tzaneen, but relocated to White River with his family at age 5.
He remained in White River for the rest of his childhood and adolescence, completing his final year of school at Uplands College, where he says his favourite school subject was mathematics.
“I don’t have a least favourite school subject,” Pierre giggled, “Aren’t they all fun?”
But Pierre isn’t just a huge nerd. He’s a ‘muso’, too.
“My passion for music really started whilst I was still in school,” Pierre recounted, “I vividly remember my parents jovially laughing at me as a child because I believed that ‘singing’ was simply pronouncing words in a long and drawn-out way – leading to all kinds of hilarity. In Grade 8, I finally got my own guitar; and by this point I had a much better idea of what singing entailed than toddler-Pierre ever did. Rina Oosthuizen in White River basically taught me everything that I needed to know about guitar. In Grade 11, I somehow managed to get cast in a main role in a school musical… despite having no vocal background! The musical was the push I needed to realise that I love singing. Since I had started playing guitar in Grade 8, I had always preferred to write my own songs, rather than just memorising the chords of someone else’s songs – and now I realised that I could perhaps sing my own songs.”
Pierre’s eyes glistened; “One night after the musical I lay in bed and asked God to give me the strength to ask my mom to let me take singing lessons. My faith is incredibly important to me and my relationship with the Lord is absolutely essential… and yet, I was still surprised at what happened next. The following morning, out of the blue and without any prompting, my mom asked me if I wanted to take singing lessons. I was elated,” Pierre revealed, “but that wasn’t the last blessing I received. I had been attending vocal coaching for a short while – when a certain music competition came to my attention. This competition boasted an amazing first prize; the winner would be given the opportunity to record a music video. That night as I lay in bed, I asked the Lord for guidance once more and for the strength to tell my mom that I would like to enter this competition. The next morning history repeated itself, and entirely unexpectedly my mom asked me whether I would want to enter this music competition which she had heard about. I ended up entering, and winning – as a result I released my first music video, titled ‘100%’, in Grade 12.”
After school Pierre was accepted to study his MBChB (medical degree) at the University of Pretoria where he spent six years living in the House Olympus hostel.
“I wasn’t ‘just’ a medical student during my time at University – I really embraced the experience. I took part in Serries and helped to organise it one year, I played a big role in our ‘student kulture klub’ (student cultural club) and I helped to organise a bunch of ‘serenades.’ I was quite busy at University – my studies probably only made up about 50% of my workload; the rest comprised of extra-curricular activities. Being a busy-body must have been advantageous in the long run though, because in my third year I met a producer named Ferdinand Skead. Ferdinand opened a lot of doors for me and he made it possible for me to release my second track ever, on a CD called ‘Techno 2.’ The song was called ‘Al Waarvoor Ek Leef’ (roughly translated as ‘the only thing I’m living for’) and it was the second music video I ever got to release. ‘Al Waarvoor Ek Leef’ also lead to me meeting Julitha from Nuelight Productions, the publicists who made my next song, ‘Besluiteloos’, possible.”
After having spent many years enriching the University of Pretoria with his presence, Pierre left for Tygerburg to start an internship after completing his degree.
Pierre moved from Tygerburg to eMalahleni, and says that he was pleasantly surprised.
“You hear so many stories about eMalahleni,” Pierre related, “but when I arrived, what I found was a town that was a lot cleaner than I thought it would be, and much greener, filled with the most friendly, down-to-earth people you could imagine; and it just seems as if everyone gets along here.”
“In Grade 12 I wanted to go study medicine because I wanted to become a paediatrician. I’m a ‘people’s-person’, so I wanted to go into medicine to really make a difference; and I couldn’t imagine a better way of doing just that than being in a colourful room all day helping ill children back to health,” Pierre divulged, “Of course, dreams change over time… I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to specialise as an anaesthesiologist as that will allow me to have more time to myself in order to pursue my musical career. In about three weeks’ time, I’ll be releasing a new song titled ‘Somer Kind’ (roughly translated as ‘Summer Child’) – which I hope will really resound with my fans. I wrote ‘Somer Kind’ myself. It’s about a guy that spots a beautiful girl in a crowd, but before he can approach her she disappears; the song is all about him searching for her.”
While the world anxiously awaits Pierre’s latest single, Pierre will be catching babies in Witbank Provincial Hospital’s maternity ward.
“It never stops being special,” Pierre sighed, “It gets to you every now and then, and it’s easy to get emotional, especially if it was a difficult or complicated birth and in the end you have a happy mommy and a happy, healthy baby.”
You can follow Dr Pierre Nel on Instagram @thepierrenel, or on Facebook @pierrenelmusic.
