Celebrities
Deborah Fraser’s family cries out over unpaid royalties three years after her passing
The family of late gospel icon Deborah Fraser has opened up about their financial struggles, revealing that they have yet to receive any royalties from her music more than three years after her death.
Fraser’s son, Nkosana, said the family has been trying to get answers from Universal Music Group, the label responsible for his mother’s catalogue, but their attempts to communicate have been ignored.
“We’ve never received my mom’s royalties, and we are struggling. What makes things worse is that Universal Music is not communicating with us. We’ve tried to reach out to them, but we are not getting any response,” Nkosana told Sunday World.
According to the publication, the family shared copies of unanswered emails they sent to Universal, requesting financial statements and updates about the royalties owed to them.
Nkosana said they even approached the company in 2023 with his mother’s former manager, Nontando Mafisa, seeking clarity on the situation, but still received no explanation.
He explained that Universal had informed them that at the time of Deborah’s passing, she owed the label two albums.
Before her death in 2022, the beloved Abanye Bayombona singer had already recorded 12 songs, which the company later decided to split into two separate albums.
One of the albums was released in 2023, but the remaining six songs have yet to be made public.
Nkosana said the family is frustrated that they have not been provided with financial statements showing how much Universal Music has earned from his mother’s work since her passing.
“We should be getting financial statements from Universal Music to see our mother’s earnings, but we are not getting anything. This is frustrating and painful,” he added.
