Tutu Puoane is a South African Jazz singer. She grew up in the township of Mamelodi, Pretoria. By 1997 she had already been performing in Johannesburg downtown. Realizing her passion for singing, Tutu went on to study jazz vocals at the University of Cape Town with Jelena Reveshin and Virginia Davids. She received several awards from major South African jazz competitions. In 2000 she won the old mutual jazz encounters for Cape region and in 2001 she received a merit award for young promising talent at the Daimler Chrysler South African jazz competition.
When she completed her vocal studies at the music college of the University of Cape, a recording contract from a major South African music record label was already offered to her but she turned it down. She accepted a greater opportunity offered by Dutch pianist Jack van Poll - who was living and teaching in Cape Town at the time - to go and study in Europe and enhance her career as a jazz vocalist and a performer. In 2002 September, Tutu moved to Europe and stayed in The Netherlands studying further for almost two years at the royal conservatory of The Hague with Rachel Gould.