adminBongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
FEMALE DJ Naida, real name Coleen Danai Goredema, says being a female DJ in Zimbabwe was difficult and the cut-throat business has seen a lot of talented female wheel-spinners ditching the profession. Female deejays are little known in the male-dominated music industry in Zimbabwe where a breakthrough has proved elusive for many ladies.
In other countries such as South Africa there are also far and few in between that are crowd pullers such as Kalawa Jazzmee’s DJ Zinhle and Afrotainment’s DJ Cyndo. DJ Naida said although she had carved out a name for herself over the years, she still had to work harder to get gigs compared to her male counterparts.
“It’s a cut-throat profession which is not for the faint hearted. As a female DJ you have to work 20 times as hard to prove that you’re just as good as a man. It has taken me five years to get to where I’m and still some people are not convinced I can do it. This negative attitude has seen many women giving up,” said DJ Naida.
She said even though many women have made strides in their own professions, female DJs are still having difficulties in keeping even relationships. “It’s difficult to be in a relationship as a female DJ as our partners fail to understand that we’ve to work at odd hours. For that reason some put aside their careers to concentrate on their relationship,” said DJ Naida.
Her sentiments were echoed by DJ Zinhle on her blog MOMents by DJ Zinhle, where she diarised the struggles of being a working mum. “One of the biggest challenges I used to struggle with as a female DJ and businesswoman, was setting aside time to start a family. I was concerned about losing relevance should I decide to take time off.’’
DJ Naida who is also a music producer and artiste said she had put aside her hip hop career and was focused on deejaying as from last year. “There’s no money in hip hop music in Zimbabwe because of Zim- dancehall. So rather than doing two things at once I decided to focus on my deejaying. This is paying off as I’m getting bookings in Zimbabwe and South Africa regularly,” said DJ Naida.
She said this year she had released a house single called Jaiva that was getting good airplay on radio stations in Zimbabwe. “I released my first single this year last week called Jaiva. People can go to my Reverbnation page online and can download it from there. It was produced by Simba Tagz,” said DJ Naida.
DJ Naida will be performing tonight at Club Eden and she promised revellers a night to remember as she will be mixing house, hip hop and R&B.
Online Reporter