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Tafadzwa Zimoyo in Chelsea, London
United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean artiste Taponeswa Mavunga, who was recently appointed Columbia Records UK head of publicity, said musicians should produce music with an identity. The award-winning publicist has previously worked for Viacom Africa as the head of talent and music, MTV Base and BET Africa. She was once a senior publicity manager at Atlantic Records UK overseeing successful campaigns for Ed Sheeran, Jay Z, Sean Paul, Estelle and Rudimental.Mavunga has also worked with Missy Elliot, Brandy, Toni Braxton and TreySongz while she has also been linked to P Diddy, ASAP Rocky and rock and roll band Kings of Leon. In an interview Mavunga said she was happy as a Zimbabwean working for Columbia and adored the talent in her country.
“I have heard some of the songs from Zimbabwe and I try by all means to see if we can also have our own share in the biggest industry. What our Zimbabwean musicians should do is to have music with unique identity and meanings that are universal. I am a big fan of Winky D and one of my artistes, Gemma, did a rendition of Winky D’s ‘Musarova Bigman’ which went viral on YouTube,” she said.
Mavunga said she loves dancehall very much, but insisted that artistes should make music that appeals to many.
“I see great potential in Zimbabwe when it comes to Zimdancehall music. I have heard about Tocky Vibes and listened to his music. I love it and there is good talent. What needs to be done is they should try making a name first in their home countries so that we as Columbia can identify them from there. We should also support them and have a clear mindset. It would be my dream too to have artist from Zimbabwe signed in by Columbia or Sony records,” she said.
The publicist said since music is universal they should also try mix languages.
“Musicians should try to sing in different languages if they want to make it big. Look how stars like Davido and Wizkid among others started. They mixed English and their home language this then can make it easy for us too to relate,” she said.
She said piracy was also affecting their industry.
“Just like how it is in Zimbabwe where you release an album or song and get affected by piracy, ours is much more the same but based on social media platforms. People now buy music online and those illegal platforms affect us so well that Jay Z can release a song today but by tomorrow it would have flooded online platforms,” she said.
She urged promoters to respect artistes’ efforts and avoid taking them for granted.
Promoters should respect artistes by paying them what is due and stop treating them in a bad way. Book them well and treat them with royalty, at the end of day we will all win. This is how some of the biggest names in music made it so far,” she said.
Mavunga said education is also lacking in the music industry.
“This is also part of my job to make sure artistes are empowered and inspired. Their job is to do songs but we have empowered them,” she said.
Online Reporter