Chantal Stanfield Serves Up Her Favourite Ice Cream

South African actress, singer and songwriter Chantal Stanfield has once again teamed up with her husband and legendary music producer RJ Benjamin for a sweet new musical offering that is every bit as playful as its title suggests.

“My Favourite Ice-Cream” is a bubbly, funk-inspired love song that celebrates the joy, inspiration and positive energy that love can bring. With an instantly catchy hook, clever songwriting and a flavour-filled rap break, the upbeat track finds Stanfield revealing another side of her artistic personality.

The new release also marks another chapter in Stanfield’s already impressive career. Celebrating 21 years in the entertainment industry, she has established herself as a versatile performer across television, film, theatre, music and other creative disciplines. While many viewers currently know her as Natasha Malgas in SABC2’s Paradys, there is considerably more to her artistic journey.

A sweet musical collaboration

Benjamin, a stalwart of the South African music industry, provides the production that gives “My Favourite Ice-Cream” its infectious energy. The collaboration between the married couple once again combines Stanfield’s distinctive vocal and songwriting abilities with Benjamin’s musical experience.

The song’s playful summertime feel is matched by a music video concept that had apparently existed alongside the song in Stanfield’s imagination from the beginning. It sees her taking on the role of an ice-cream seller, serving soft-serve from a proper old-fashioned ice-cream truck.

Filmed on a chilly Sunday morning in July in Johannesburg, far removed from the warmth of summer, the video was directed by Rici Martens and brings the song’s celebration of love to life through a variety of characters and encounters.

Love comes in many flavours

Among those featured are an older retired White heterosexual couple, a middle-aged gay couple accompanied by their adorable dog, and a young Black family. Each interaction contributes to the video’s positive, inclusive fantasy of people simply enjoying one another’s company.

There is even an unexpected appearance by a group of suburbanites who happened to drive past the shoot. Seeing the ice-cream truck, they jokingly stopped to ask whether they could also get some ice cream. Their genuine enjoyment resulted in an unplanned moment that became part of the finished video.

WATCH: Chantal Stanfield – ‘My Favourite Ice Cream’ Official Music Video

From Cape Flats to the screen

Chantal Stanfield’s creative versatility extends well beyond her current television role. Born in Cape Town and raised largely on the Cape Flats, particularly around Strandfontein and Mitchells Plain, she has drawn on her experiences in several of her creative works. She is a graduate of the University of Cape Town Drama School and has worked extensively in theatre, including as a playwright.

Her self-penned one-woman show From Koesiestes to Kneidlach drew on her experience as a Cape Flats girl marrying a Jewish boy from Johannesburg, while her historical drama Shockwave explores race, religion and closeted homosexuality against the backdrop of the 1980s Apartheid State of Emergency on the Cape Flats.

As a musician, Stanfield has released singles including “Walk It Off”, “Nothing There” and “J’adore”, while her deep-house collaboration with DJ Chymamusique, “Love Worth Fighting For”, received international airplay.

Now, with “My Favourite Ice-Cream”, Stanfield and Benjamin have produced something lighter and deliberately fun. It is a song about love, summer and the simple pleasure of sharing good vibes, served with a generous scoop of Stanfield’s own playful creativity.