When Musa Motha lost a leg to cancer as a 10-year-old boy, he said to himself: “I’m going to live with this.”
He’s done that and more, first learning to play football again, before mastering African street dancing, performing with rapper Drake and travelling across the world to chase his dream of dance stardom.
Now 27, what Musa can do with one leg and one crutch is astonishing.
That will quickly become apparent to Britain’s Got Talent viewers when he shows his skills on the show tonight.
“I was only little when I got cancer,” says Musa, who was living with his family in Sebokeng, a township about 30 miles south of Johannesburg, South Africa, when the symptoms began.
“But I didn’t even know what cancer was or how life-threatening it was. I’d been sick for over a year. My left knee was swollen and really painful and Mum took me to the doctors.
“Eventually I was sent to Johannesburg General Hospital for a biopsy.”
The diagnosis of cancer was terrifying for his mum and dad, Ntokozo Precious and Solly. For Musa, so young, it was bewildering.
He just wanted to get out and have a kickabout with his mates. Instead there was two months of chemotherapy then the news that his leg was going to be amputated.
“It’s totally contrary,” he says, “but I was glad.
“I’d been sick for such a long time and I thought, I need to lose this leg!
“I was a bit relieved. It was a solution for me, not traumatic or sad. I believe in new beginnings and I just said to myself, ‘I’m going to live with this’.”
After his leg was removed from the hip, more chemotherapy followed and then the rest of Musa’s life began.
“The first thing I did was learn to play football on my crutches,” he says.
He’d balance on the crutches and swing his right leg. One-legged football mastered! What next?
“One day we were at a party and my friends were dancing.”
Musa watched for a bit and then wanted to join in. “I asked them to teach me,” he said. There were tumbles, scrapes, endless picking himself up and trying again.
But determined Musa is not one to give up on anything.
From playing football with able-bodied kids, he started dancing with them too, taking lessons in hip-hop and African street dance style Abuja.
Soon he had his own dance crew and he got one of his first big breaks, when he was cast to appear in the music video for Canadian rapper Drake’s song One Dance.
It was a early taste of stardom and Musa wanted more.
Two years later, after earning a diploma in chemical engineering, he joined Vuyani Dance Theatre in Johannesburg, and eventually decided he wanted to dance professionally.
The moves that were performed by the able-bodied dancers, he would have to adapt for his one leg.
“It made me really creative,” he says.
“I’d have to adjust the move, interpret it and make it look similar. It’s very challenging.”
“A good challenge,” he grins.
Musa does have a prosthetic leg but doesn’t use it, preferring his crutches. ‘When I used the prosthesis, I was a different person and I didn’t know that person any more,” he explains.
“It’s the person I was before the amputation and I’m not him now.”
In 2021 Musa was contacted by a dance company in London and invited to come and audition for them.
He left his parents, brother and three little sisters in Johannesburg and jumped on a plane.
He got the job and has since appeared in musical Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby.
One day, a mate asked him why didn’t he apply to BGT. “We have a South African BGT but my dream was the British one,” Musa says. “The talent is amazing.”
When the call came, inviting him to audition, he was icy calm.
The little boy who overcame cancer and propelled himself on one leg towards challenge after challenge, wasn’t going to be fazed by TV stardom and an audience of millions.
He laughs: “I was really chilled.
“Until I stepped on to the stage in front of the judges. Then I started stuttering, that’s how excited I was. I can hear it in my voice.”
Faced with Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli, the nerves kicked in.
His 47-year-old mum and the rest of the family will be watching the
audition at home in Johannesburg.
“They are so proud,” says Musa, who last year returned to his home city to perform in Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero. “Mum might not have shared her emotions with me when I was in hospital. She was being strong for me.
“But we have shared tears together since through some difficult decisions.
“She can’t believe the person I have transformed into today.”
Viewers won’t believe it either. He’ll be performing to Runnin’ (Lose It All) by Naughty Boy featuring Beyonce.
“Everything I am doing, I am doing for my family,” he says.
And to inspire other differently abled dancers. Musa, who lives in Bermondsey, South London, has a new dream. “I want to reach out and show people who are differently abled how beautiful life is,” he says.
“I want to have a dance company that can empower them. And I want to get into films and acting.”
He still plays football – for Arsenal Amputee Football Club. You get the feeling he can do anything he puts his mind to. Really, it was no contest, Musa Motha versus cancer.
The rogue cells knew when they were beaten. And tonight’s audition just might be the next one-legged step towards world domination for a man who never gives up.
* Britain’s Got Talent continues tonight at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. The live semi-finals kick off from Monday at 8pm.
