South African Opera Singer Pretty Yende Receives Italian Knighthood

International opera singer Pretty Yende is South Africa's golden girl.

The award-winning artist is the recipient of the Ordine Stella d'Italia or The Order/Knight of the Star of Italy for her work in building extraordinary relations between Italy and other countries. The award was recently given to her by the Italian Consul's Emanuele Pollio in Cape Town according to TimesLIVE.

Describing her excitement at having been awarded the Italian knighthood, Yende wrote in a post on social media that, "Being a recipient of The Order/Knight of the Star of Italy deeply humbles and fills me with immense gratitude for such an extraordinary decoration." Paying tribute to both her mother and sister, she added, "These ladies standing beside me are my very wings that allow me to fly to the impossible. Strong women who never [cease] to give me unconditional love and always remind me that we are all just walking each other home."

Yende was inspired as a young girl to pursue opera after hearing the popular "Flower Duet" from Delibes' Lakméin television commercial. She then went on to become the first Black woman to ever grace the operatic stage during Apartheid-era South Africa and manged to secure a spot in the young artists' program at La Scala, Italy. Yende then made her formal debut at the prestigious opera house in 2010.

Since then, Yende has gone on to perform at highly-esteemed opera houses including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin and several others. Read more about her here.