adminAuxilia Katongomara Entertainment Correspondent
LOCAL artistes have found an outlet for their music as Zimbabwe’s own satellite television station; BOStv seems focused on promoting local content and providing airplay to all musicians in the country. In recent years, artistes from different parts of the country bemoaned being shunned by ZBCtv and radio stations accusing them of favouritism.
The television station that was launched last year has given priority to local and African artistes. Some of the artistes who spoke to Chronicle Entertainment yesterday said they are pleased by the way the station has been promoting their works.
Hip-hop artiste, Nashie said sometimes he felt like his videos are overplayed by the station but said it was a good start to promoting local content.
“The airplay is just too much sometimes, but it is for a good cause as it gives us exposure to the whole nation.
“I only submitted my track Mic Nema Headphones and I think they downloaded some of the videos from the internet,” he said.
House musician Khulekani “Khuxman” Bhethule said BOStv was doing a wonderful job in promoting all Zimbabwean artistes, but highlighted that the offices are not readily available for easy access to the artistes.
“I submitted my video WeMaNcube, but I am not sure if it gets airplay but the major challenge for us Bulawayo artistes are facing is that we do not know who to approach and take our music to because they don’t have an office in Bulawayo. I submitted my video through a friend who was visiting their offices in Harare,” said Khuxman. BOStv marketing executive Chenai Nyakunengwa said the station’s aim was to expose local artistes to a regional and international audience.
“Bostv is viewed in 52 countries now and if you take note, in recent years, most artistes were no longer producing musical videos because they were expensive and were not getting airplay on television but now this is the chance for them to be viewed by the local and foreign audiences. We strive to give fair air-play to all artistes, we are working with both veteran and budding artistes,” she said.
Nyakunengwa urged Zimbabwean artistes to produce music videos of international standards so as to make it big in the industry.
She encouraged all artistes in the country to produce music in the various languages other than Shona and English.
“Our station also aims at promoting Zimbabwean culture, so we welcome more music in different languages, as we do not want a monopoly of one language.
“Most Nigerian and Zambian tracks are sung in the mother languages and we encourage such from our artistes,” said Nyakunengwa.
She added that as a new player in the industry, they were working on decentralising their operations and opening outlets countrywide.
Online Reporter