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Showbiz Reporter
Musician Madlela Skhobokhobo says the launch of his latest Kwamu Kwamu album on Saturday was a success despite the sound challenges experienced on the night.
Addressing fans via a Facebook live on his page on Monday afternoon, the artiste thanked those who came through and various corporates for the “success” he recorded on the day.
He said the sound glitch that was experienced was beyond his control as everything was functioning well when they did a sound check earlier in the day.
Madlela
“I want to give a hearty thanks to you all for the support. When you plan (an event), you visualise what you want your programme to be like, but I doubt there’s anyone perfect or anything perfect. Perfection is only found in Heaven,” Madlela said.
He said the sound glitch was disheartening and forced him to cancel the live recording as it was pointless.
“What surprised me is that in the afternoon when Amaqaqa were doing their sound check, the sound was perfect. I don’t know what then happened in the evening. But, despite the sound challenges, I achieved what I wanted.”
His preferred venue, Kelvin Tshisanyama did not play popular with some having been of the opinion that he could have opted for a better venue. However, Madlela said he found the venue ideal, especially after being offered to use it free of charge. He said some venues were charging him up to US$5 000 which he could not afford.
“Others weren’t happy with the venue we chose, but it’s not easy to get venues as some venues charged us US$5 000, money which I didn’t have. We went all out with a begging bowl to various people and organisations and spent over R100 000 from what we got. But that was not enough to cover everything.
“So we chose a venue that has been used by other rhumba artistes and I felt comfortable staging the show there because it was at no cost at all,” he said.
Responding to the $10 ticket pricing which some felt was steep, Madlela said there was a need for a mindset shift in the city.
“I accept that we could have had more people if we had charged $5 as we had anticipated attracting more people. But I need to understand the dynamics because why do we have to pay US$10 to attend shows of artistes from Harare and South Africa while local artistes cannot charge that? Maybe I’m yet to understand those dynamics,” he said.
On the day of the launch, Madlela also released visuals for his album’s title track, Kwamu Kwamu. After sampling the song, some were of the opinion that it is not suitable for those under the age of 18 due to the issues he raises and explicit language. In the song, Madlela tackles the old tradition of ukungena where when a husband dies, the brother of the late can take over the wife and become her husband.
Some felt the song had explicit content when the husband was asking the wife for conjugal rights as the new husband.
Responding to this, Madlela apologised to those who were offended and said people need to understand that he is a character.
“If the song rubbed you the wrong way, I’m sorry. I’m not a musician, but a storyteller. Madlela is a character, let’s just accept that. There are musicians like Martin Sibanda and Mcebisi Mlilo and others who were there to sing, but I tell stories with a deep understanding of music.”
Online Reporter