Gallo Records celebrates 100 years of music innovation and cultural legacy

One of the biggest and longest-serving record labels, Gallo Records, will celebrate 100 years of churning out international hits and local stars in the new year.

Gallo Music has been a pioneering force of recording and publishing music in South Africa for an uninterrupted 100 years. We are proud to announce the milestone centenary celebrations of Africa’s oldest surviving recording company. From February 2026, a series of events commemorating a hundred-year journey will commence.

From the start in 1926, Gallo Music, with its iconic rooster logo, has been a leader, unearthing talent, releasing iconic hits, and shaping the cultural landscape of South Africa, the continent of Africa, and beyond. Founded by Eric Gallo as a modest record company in the heart of the throbbing Johannesburg music scene, Gallo Music has developed into a powerhouse and home for South African music.

The sounds that laid the foundation of the South African songbook were captured by the company that has been synonymous with excellence and innovation.

For South African music icon Sipho Hotstix Mabuse, the ‘ubiquitous relationship’ between himself and the record label has spanned many hit records and a long-lasting partnership.

“I, Gallo was and still is a record company with a wider footprint throughout the continent, enabling one's music to reach broadly ours was transitional from indie label As Shams/Sun, owned by Rashid Valli and Abdullah Ibrahim, gratifying. I believe I am still a family member of the company unless,” he chuckles.

However, over the past 30 years, the landscape of the music industry has changed dramatically, with more and more artist now owning their own record labels and the changes brought by technology having taken the creativity brought by the old age tradition of creating music from scratch.

The recording studio and the work of a producer have shifted dramatically as well.

However, the biggest change is the use of AI to create music, which the legendary maestro feels has taken the best out of the entire process. However, for Mabuse, Gallo remains the most trusted music industry brand.

“Gallo is a repository of the best South African recorded music ever., Artists evolve in creativity, just like the music we create; I would like to believe adaptation is part of creativity. However, I am rather ambivalent about the introduction of AI; at best, it is an unavoidable development for an array of possibilities, at worst, an encroaching aberration in the creative world. A relationship based on trust, hopefully still committed to the trust and enduring legacy,” he says.

Known for signing big-name artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Soul Brothers, Mahlathini and The Mahotella Queens, Caiphus Semenya, Dorothy Masuka, and Jeremy Taylor, alongside local legends Mango Groove, Chicco, Sipho Hotstix Mabuse, Phuzekhemisi, Mfaz’omyama, Gallo became the country’s leading musical voice, establishing itself as a trusted brand among music lovers and artists alike.

Mabuse remembers his first relationship with the label after they signed with Teal Records.

“Our Band the Beaters had been ambitious, longing to record our music, although our first recording was with Teal. Gallo's ubiquity was the main goal, as it was the company that licensed and distributed other labels, including CBS. Our ambition was realised after we moved from As-shams Records, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Rashid Valli's indie label.

“Gallo means a bird in Italian, if I am correct, I guess birds fly, others soar even further high up, which probably was symbolic of what the founder Eric Gallo, may have thought. The record label and the logo, as you correctly assert, represent a collective creativity, perhaps even historically, of South Africa's best music on offer,” he says.

The best part about Gallo, according to Mr Mabuse, is that:” Gallo holds the best catalogue of a 100 years in South African music, a repository of what future evolving music could tap into for inspiration. I have had the privilege of unprecedented International signings both as and with Harari as a Soloist, with A&M Records and CBS Records, Virgin Records, respectively.”