A music love story

By Terence Chitukudza
Tendai Manatsa and Selmor Mtukudzi —  are two song stars who met six years ago in Zimbabwe’s thick music jungles and fell deeply in love.
Their love tale is as sweet as the music they compose in the silent anonymity of each other’s company at their home in Belvedere.
What is more interesting is that their voices are products of childhood initiation that comes with being born in a music family.
Tendai Manatsa is son to Zex Manatsa, the creative force behind all-time hit song Chipo Chiroorwa, and Selmor is daughter to Zimbabwe’s granddad of song, Oliver Mtukudzi.
For Tendai and Selmor music flows naturally as a hold-over of their family traditions.
Talking to Tendai and Selmor is like scrolling down the careers of Zex and Oliver — repackaged and rebranded.
However, the young music couple has a streak  sense of growth that is attached with the zeal to identify with life more and an independent approach to music.
The couple denies that they were merely taking advantage of the names Mtukudzi and Manatsa to scale dizzy heights in music.
“We are not at all taking advantage of our  backgrounds neither are we merely imitating  our parents.
“Our music is different, people are not doing us any favour by thinking that we are just there to ride on our parents’ successes,’’ Tendai said.
The music couple said Oliver and Zex are legends who inspire a lot of people with their music,  hence they also find time to inquire into their earlier efforts through playing some of their  songs at shows.
“The renditions we do at shows are not suggestive of any attempts to imitate their efforts .
“In fact, it shows how much we cherish them as our heroes in music. We venerate them through some of their songs.
“In our society we have a rich culture of cherishing our heroes’ legacies, so Tuku, Zex, Mapfumo are our heroes,’’ Tendai said.
The couple said they were busy putting final touches on a new album, which will be their first collaborative effort.
“We are busy right now trying to put together a polished album.
“We worked together, swapping roles sometimes. I worked on vocals  sometimes while Selmor was leading,’’ Tendai  said.
Ironically, this album precedes an unfinished project, which the late  Sam Mtukudzi was working on at the time of his death.
“Brother Sam was mixing the album titled Ndanga, literally meaning “coming together”. It has not seen light of day since he died. Dad is trying to put it together at his Norton studios.”
Tendai and Selmor are two musicians who extol themes of culture and tradition in their music. Listening to Selmor singing in her flawless voice helps one to embrace the beauty of life and all its experiences are given enough prominence with accompanying flawless instruments.
Tendai talks about what shapes music concepts.
“Our music is centred on culture and tradition and my understanding is that as black people we have our own ways of looking at life.
“Our ways are different from those of other races and cultures.’’
African music is about struggles, experiences  and not about sex and obscenities as is the case with most American music,” he said.
For Tendai and Selmor when they sing about  love their focus is family, the sanctity of marriage and its products and not mere overtones of sex and nudity as exalted in Western music circles. Talking about marriage, the two have done a love song — Hakunamumwe — literally meaning  “there is none other than you”, which they say is expressive of the underlying love that brought them together and has seen them scoring six years of incessant love blessed with two beautiful kids.
And on Valentine’s Day the couple will team up with Alexio Kawara and Victor Kunonga to celebrate love at the 7 Arts Theatre.
Selmor said Harare would reverberate with love tunes that will nourish lovers as they celebrate St Valentine’s Day.
Tendai and Selmor are indeed an exciting music couple worth noting, and what is interesting about them is the drive to see their music grow through shared efforts.
Their level of humility and a calm approach to matters of life will undoubtedly spur them to  greater heights.