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Mbongeni Msimanga, Sunday Leisure Correspondent
FEMALE Afro Jazz musician Selmor Mtukudzi is a married woman, but she still uses her maiden surname instead of her husband’s, Tendai Manatsa.
This has seen so-called traditionalists labelling her a rebellious wife. But she has rubbished such assertions as nothing but garbage.
The daughter of music legend Oliver Mtukudzi told Sunday Leisure that she finds such talk sexist and declared she has a right to continue using her maiden surname.
“My marital status has nothing to do with my work. How come no one questions what Jah Prayzah, Shinsoman and others call themselves? I find that to be sexist,” she said.
In an interview with SABC early this year, Selmor said she was using her father’s surname because it carried weight in the music industry.
“I was inspired by my father and my first trip to the United Kingdom as his backing vocalist. I can’t divorce myself from the fact that I carry his surname and I want to keep the legacy going. If you do evolve, you simply dissolve,” she said.
Selmor’s career started when her sales representative job ended and she immediately decided to be a backing vocalist for several musicians and bands. She worked with the likes of Tanga WekwaSando, Kwekwe Band, Jabavu and Pax Afro.
It is in these groups where she honed her voice and gained the confidence to go solo.
Although being careful not to comment about her frosty relationship with her father, Selmor said her new album highlighted her personal and family life.
“Expressions are about me expressing my feelings towards different aspects of life. Most of the songs on it are very personal. I talked about what happened to me, my family and the people I care about,” she said.
Selmor, who describes herself as passionate, hard-working, quiet and shy, is writing her own fairytale that she hopes will see her succeed like her father in showbiz.
The new Afro-jazz album, Expressions, is sung mostly in Shona and English.
Leading the way is the hit single Nguva Yangu, which has set Zimbabwean radio, stations alight.
Some of the thrilling songs are Anokuda Chaiye and Wandinoda.
Already, South African radio stations are now playing Ropafadzo, a song whose success has even surprised Selmor. The song is about a young girl raped by an uncle who now has a disease “running in her blood”.
Like most of her songs, this is a true story, she says.
As a mother of three — Ben (5), Troy (3) and Hannah (1) — one can understand her passionate involvement with Girl Child Network.
Another cause close to her is education. She sings about its importance on Dzidzo.
Online Reporter