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“Anyway she is not worth talking about because by the end of this year she will be finished as an artiste. She is a one-album wonder!” he said.
How wrong “Khule” was because two years on, Zahara seems to be going from strength to strength.
Within a short space of time promoters have fallen over each other to bring her to Zimbabwe. She has already done three sold- out performances in Zimbabwe within a year.
Her first performance with May 7 Entertainment was March 2 in 2012 at the Harare International Conference Centre (where she performed to a packed auditorium.
The second performance was on August 10, 2012 when Hardcore World Entertainment brought her to Zimbabwe.
The concert was held at Borrowdale Race Course’s Fusion Club.
Then there was a third concert organised by Ghetto Fabulous on March 8 this year at HICC again. Apart from these shows, other promoters within the region found Zahara irresistible.
Last year she toured throughout the region touching countries such as Swaziland, Botswana and Mozambique.
Not only has she been successful as a singing sensation, but I am told that she has now doubled into an acting role.
A film called “Nothing for Mahala”, which will be released this August, is being made where Zahara and another veteran female musician, Dorothy Masuka, will play acting roles.
On March 8 this year, when one thought she was now a spent force with one album only to her name, she brought the HICC down with yet another sold-out concert.
The promoters, after doing a thorough market search, must have sensed that she is still popular among Zimbabweans. They added Oliver Mtukudzi, Alexio Kawara and Mokoomba to the line-up to make the evening more exciting.
I was there early enough to see everything. Mokoomba performed first. There were less than 500 people during their performance as it was still early.
What a waste of a band! I tell you the band belted out their best tunes and I feel sorry for those who missed them.
They were simply fantastic. In my opinion, they should have been given another opportunity to come back on stage when the house was full, but, needless to say, that did not happen.
After Mokoomba came Alexio and he gave it everything he could before he capped his set with “Shaina”. After Alexio, Tich Mataz, who was MC for the night, announced the next artiste. The crowd went into a frenzy. Then came Zahara!
At first I thought she had become a country and Western artiste or a gospel singer as she began her show with a gripping gospel tune in her signature powerful voice.
It was a moment to savour forever. The audience’s cheers lessened, perhaps in reverence to the star before them and maybe in acknowledgement that such star quality can only be God-given.
Her touching Xhosa traditional hymn struck a soft spot. When everyone expected rock-star grand entrance gimmicks from a world-class superstar, Zahara instead walked onstage humming, as would most ordinary beings. It was a humbling gesture and it further endeared Zahara in the hearts of many.
After that sobering moment, the party got underway. Zahara sang “Xa Bendino Mama” to perfection; it was an up-tempo track with traditional mbaqanga bass line and maskandi accordion.
Tracing its roots to the old days of migrant labour in South Africa, it appealed to young and old alike; and Zahara’s electrifying voice must have reminded them of the late, great Miriam Makeba.
As the song faded, Zahara, who appeared visibly shaken with strong emotions, said to the roaring fans, “Thank you very much for inviting me again. I feel like I am home.”
The opening bars of “My Destiny” took Zahara’s steadfast fans back to the day before stardom.
“Everything may be too slow on me/But I will be there holding it down/I know where I am going”, she sang of the obstacles in her way.
It was truly a plaintive voice of the struggling artiste she was a few years ago, and spoke of the strong belief she has in herself.
Zahara wrote most of her songs before she was signed by TS Records in August 2010.
Her debut album “Loliwe” (2011) went platinum in 13 days and double platinum in just 17 days, selling over 100 000 copies in South Africa. It catapulted the then 24-year-old to international stardom.
“Umthwalo” also chronicled the hard knock life, and the challenges that everyday people face, pleading to divinity for a helping hand. Though sung in Xhosa, “Umthwalo” is everyone’s song as the crowd sang along.
She then went up-tempo as she sang “Incwadi Encane”, a song she recorded with Zimbabwean DJ George Munetsi of Kaya FM.
She invited Alexio Kawara to sing George’s part in the song. We all thought it was because she did not know the Shona lyrics, but she fooled us all. After Alexio’s exit, she invited members of the audience to sing that part again.
Before the end of the song, she grabbed the microphone back from the audience and with assistance from her two backing female vocalists, she eloquently sang the Shona chants like nobody’s business. The crowd were ecstatic as they loved that part of the song to bits.
The party then went a step up when she called Sharon, a female fan, to come up and dance on stage. Zahara observed her do Macheso’s “Zora Butter” dance.
When Sharon swung her hips to the “Zora Butter” dance in front of the packed auditorium, the crowd went wild prompting Zahara to try the style — and that was a coup de grace to her performance as the crowd even went wilder.
Zahara capped the night with her multi-platinum, debut album title track “Loliwe” — a song that was for most of 2011 and 2012 the “regional anthem” of Southern Africa.
Throughout the show, the crowd had been asking for it in her repertoire.
When the lead guitarist George Selesto played the familiar opening bars, the crowd went ecstatic.
The young star sang her heart out, her magical voice alternatively going off, hoarse and powerful, as she led the crowd in a sing-along.
Born in Phumlani, a settlement outside East London in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, Zahara started singing at the age of six.
Unable to go to university due to lack of funds, she honed her guitar-playing and song-writing skills by herself; she has never had any formal music lessons, always playing her guitar by ear.
The talented, acoustic guitar player, song- writer, poet and singer was spotted in 2010 in East London by Thembinkosi Nciza, co-owner of TS Records; he immediately made arrangements to sign her and move her to Johannesburg.
Her debut album “Loliwe” was released in August 2011 and sold out in 72 hours, reaching double platinum in South Africa and surpassing 100 000 sales in three weeks, thus becoming the fastest selling album in South African music history, after Brenda Fassie’s “Memeza” (1997).
Zahara has won nine music awards to date. During the 18th annual MTN South African Music Awards in 2012, she took home six awards: Album of the Year (“Loliwe”), Special Award: Best Selling Album (“Loliwe”), Newcomer of the Year, Female Artiste of the Year, Best Collaboration (featuring George Munetsi for “Incwadi Encwane”) and Best Smooth Urban Music Album. In addition, she received Metro FM Music Awards for Song of the Year and Best Female singer.
She also received the Channel O Music Video Award 2012 for Best Video (“Loliwe”).
Zahara reiterated her previous assertion of how she respects the man who inspired her, Oliver Mtukudzi, who gave the last performance of the night.
Mtukudzi, as usual dwarfed everyone who had tried to be a superstar that night as he sang “Mutserendende” and other popular Tuku tunes to which the crowd responded by singing along.
He thrilled the audience with an outstanding act. The crowd even knew the lyrics to one of his latest songs on the “Sarawoga” album, “Watitsvata”.
Every song was enjoyable and fans enjoyed the show right to the end of the show at 3am.
I am not certain whether the crowd had come for Tuku or Zahara, or both, but one thing I am certain about is that Zahara is not finished yet. Sorry “Khule”.
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