Donald responds to fans nostalgic for 'I Deserve' era: 'Allow me to cook'

Ah, the days when summer meant sunburns, sea sand, and singing along to Donald’s "I Deserve" or "Over the Moon" at the top of your lungs in your little Kia Picanto, windows down, wind in your hair, and your top dawgs (friends) vibing in the back seat.

You could practically feel that heartbreak and hope all at once, the kind of love you know you deserve, but never quite get.

If you were vibing to "I Deserve", chances are your playlist also had a few of these gems from the same early 2010s period that cemented Donald as one of Mzansi’s soulful kings.

So, it’s no surprise that when Donald recently teased his new single, fans got all nostalgic for that old-school magic.

One X user summed it up perfectly: “We miss the old Donald wa sekgowa, the love I know I deserve, that’s the Donald we want.”

Who can blame them? That era gave us pure, heartfelt R&B sprinkled with just enough local flavour to make it feel like it belonged to us. It was the soundtrack of crushes, breakups, and those “are we or aren’t we?” relationships that defined the early 2010s.

But Donald wasn’t about to let nostalgia box him in. Responding to the fan, the award-winning singer said, “Mara Tebza, I’m an artist and can’t be boxed.

"I make music with all kinds of sounds and languages. Enjoy what you enjoy, but don’t try to choose what I must make, because others want me to sing in Setwana, Zulu or even Sesotho. What about those people? Allow me to cook, you just eat what you like.”

That response deserves a slow clap. Donald’s message cuts right to the core of what it means to be a true artist, evolution. It’s a reminder that while fans may long for the nostalgia of the “old sound,” artists need the freedom to grow, explore, and experiment. 

We want new music, but we want it to sound exactly like the old stuff. You see the contradiction? It’s like asking for a glow-up but wanting the same old selfie filter.

The same fans who fell in love with "I Deserve" or “Train of Love” are no longer the same people we were back then. We’ve grown, lived, healed, and maybe even found the love we deserved (or not - it’s fine, we’re still healing).

Donald’s music reflects that journey, too. His decision to switch up languages and sounds isn’t a rejection of who he was; it’s an expansion of who he’s become.

So maybe the next time we hit play on his new track, instead of saying, “We miss the old Donald,” we should say, “We’re proud of the new one.”