adminBruce Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
GOSPEL singer Mathias Mhere has hogged the limelight in the last few weeks. While the popularity of his music has soared, so has his notoriety as dirty detail after dirty detail of his private life is revealed to the public. On the streets, where pirated music now provides the new barometer for the popularity of new music, the singer’s new gospel tunes from his new album, Glory to Glory, have not waned in popularity.
The singer’s dirty laundry seems to be now in display for all to view, with each day peeling the mask of the respectable gospel crooner to reveal the face of a not so hallowed flawed and ordinary man. The singer’s six year marriage to Susan Dzinamarira has constantly grabbed headlines, with each detail revealing what many thought was a fairytale wedding is in fact an uneasy alliance.
First there were allegations that the singer’s wife was involved in an extra marital affair with his best friend, Gift Mahlupheka. Mhere got all the public’s sympathy, with many viewing him as the victim of a back stabbing friend and a promiscuous wife that had betrayed his trust. Then it emerged that Mhere, with the collusion of Mahlupheka had allegedly staged the whole thing to create a bigger buzz for his album which was released around the time the scandal the scandal.
Conspiracy theorists have since been hard at work trying to prove that the gospel singer had indeed tried to win the affections and attention of the public by creating a scandal that made headlines and also painted him as a saintly husband ready to forgive his promiscuous wife for her adulterous ways.
This week our sister paper, The Herald, revealed that there was more to the Mhere saga, which has now spun an intricate and confusing web, as it emerged that the singer himself had been involved in extra marital affairs in the past that had jeopardised his marriage.
Mhere’s affairs had allegedly led Dzinamarira to seek an end to the marriage in May last year after she found messages on Mhere’s phone that revealed a passionate affair with another woman. One of the affairs, involving one of his former backing vocalists, Mavis, had allegedly led the couple to the brink of divorce.
“The messages were sexually explicit and in one Mhere was requesting Mavis to refer to him as her husband. In another he was clearly referring to a past sexual encounter and in yet other messages he was describing his wish list pertaining to future encounters,” the source revealed to The Herald.
The soap opera like drama that has been Mhere’s marriage over the past two weeks has led some to question whether the gospel crooner is indeed a man of God as his genre of choice would suggest. If he was, some ask, truly a man who believes in the power of the message behind his music, does he need petty gimmicks to elevate the popularity of his music?
On the other side of the coin are those that question whether people are putting too much expectation on gospel artistes like Mhere, expecting them to be the living and breathing incarnation of the words in their music. If every man is flawed and a sinner, as the Holy book says, then should Mhere be sacrificed at the altar of fans’ unrealistic moral expectations of their gospel stars?
According to Pastor Hloniphani Ndlovu of Brethren in Christ Church in Bulawayo, gospel music and a “clean” lifestyle go hand in hand. Ndlovu observes that that when one becomes a gospel artiste, they have to walk the talk as it’s not enough to expect people not to associate your music and your lifestyle. A gospel artiste, he believes, is not merely an actor portraying a hallowed lifestyle that is too lofty for him to reach for.
“Gospel music is an extension of preaching. It’s part and parcel of teaching the bible and your lifestyle should reflect that. You can’t divorce the music from the word of the bible,” he said.
Ndlovu believes some of the artistes are in the trade for the wrong reasons, as most are unprepared for the lifestyle that being a gospel music superstar demands.
“Gospel music, just like being a pastor, should be a calling. It’s unfortunate that some just take it as a career. If more looked at it like a calling than a chance to just sing and make money, they wouldn’t have all these problems,” he said.
Mhere is not the only gospel star to find himself on the wrong side of society’s moral expectations, with both international and local gospel maestros at some point or another seemingly failing to live up to the moral standards expected of people in the genre.
In 2006, US gospel star Kirk Franklin appeared on Oprah to speak candidly about his pornography addiction. He first viewed pornography at the age of 8 and struggled with addiction for nearly 22 years. He talked about how it was literally like a drug calling him. From the likes of Franklin to South Africa’s Lundi and now Mhere, gospel artistes have had their fair share of controversy. With the fires in Mhere’s personal life still raging, one wonders whether the gospel star will find peace or whether he will get the divine intervention that his songs explicitly describe.
Online Reporter