adminTendai Rupapa Entertainment Reporter
SELMOR MTUKUDZI is set to enhance her stature as one of promising female musicians in the country through collaboration with internationally acclaimed afro-fusion outfit Mokoomba on a single set for release early next year. This is the first collaboration between the much-travelled Mokoomba and a local artiste and Selmor has just broken the ice for more collaborations to come.
According to Selmor – who is daughter to legendary musician Oliver Mtukudzi, the yet-to-be-titled track is about social life in Zimbabwe.
“We are going to start with a show at the 7 Arts in Harare on December 19, where we will see how we blend as artistes when it comes to the artistic side of it before we go for recording,” Selmor said.
She added: “We were supposed to have recorded the single this year but decided to reschedule it for early next year because we didn’t want to rush the project.
The show, during which we will assess ourselves, will be called “100 Percent Local Concert” whereby we want to show that as Zimbabweans we can do much better than those so-called international artistes who at times are outshone by our local artistes.”
Mokoomba’s manager, Marcus Gora, concurred with Selmor, adding that Zimbabweans should brace for a unique collaboration.
“The track will be done in different minority languages to cater for all audiences some of whom might not understand mainstream languages.
“We have also gone the extra mile in making the lyrics of our music, which includes this single with Selmor, accessible and understandable to a wider audience by posting translations of the songs onto our website.
“Take, for instance, the music by South African artiste like Ringo or Salif Keita from Mali, our people enjoy their music despite the language barriers and this is exactly what we want to achieve through this single which will probably lead into something bigger like an album,” Gora said.
Gora added that they had a good working relationship with Selmor hence the collaboration which will promote their brand.
“For us, this is a pathway to integrate the ethnic, cultural and traditional values through music.
“We realised that this was one way of building bridges among Zimbabweans through music,” Gora said.
Meanwhile, Mokoomba performed before a full house at Harare’s leading joint Book Café last Friday, a show that proved why they are making waves on the international platform.
The multiple-award-winning group in the Nama and ZIMAAs competitions – delighted fans with songs taken off their debut offering “Kweseka” and the follow-up release “Rising Tide”, which gave clear testimony as to why they have taken their act to close to 35 countries worldwide.
Gora, said they have lined up a number of shows in the capital and the rest of the country where they want to show their fans that home is always the best, though they are somewhat of a household name in Europe.
Online Reporter