Some of the supporting artists at the show include; Praise Umali, Dark Shadow, George Kalukusha and Eve the Painter.
Check one of his recent animation video here.
The
founder and leader of the group, Prince Msonthi confirms about the development.
“The woso project is coming out probably mid this year, date is unspecified,” Said Msonthi.
Since its inception in 2014 the group has managed to produce two projects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfjlPbADf7M.
Writing on their social platforms Nyasa Music
Group (NMAs) confirms the development.
“Introducing
our first International act that will be performing live at Wonderland Day
Festival The sensational, soulful, award winning, Blaq Diamond,” Reads Nyasa
Music post.
The
festival is to celebrate talent from Malawi and with some few international
artists
.
The Awards celebrate music by Zimbabwean
artists as well as music that entertain the Zimbabwean community.
Upon hearing her nomination, Hazel Mak said she was shocked with the nomination.
“I have been nominated in the category of outstanding achievement music, honestly I was shocked at first, but most of all I felt appreciated,” she said.
“I can honestly say the Zimbabwean
community has always supported me, and for them to recognize me in this
actually means a world to me,” said the Liyaya hit maker.
Born Hazel Makunganya, Hazel Mak began
her music career at the tender age of 11 singing and performing for various
events including ‘Miss Malawi’. Today
she has a repertoire of numerous projects with international artists, sharing
stages with the likes of Black Motion, Lady Zamar, Prince Kaybee, Ammara Brown,
Oliver Mtukudzi, Sauti Sol, Micasa and Freshly Ground.
Since inception in 2010, the awards have
become a premier event on the diaspora social calendar, starting with the
flagship ZAA UK edition to branch out to other territories including USA,
Canada, Australia, South Africa, Botswana and China.
To vote for Hazel Mak and other nominees go to
https://zimachievers.org/poll/outstanding-achievement-in-music-mode-female
and cast their vote.
.
This is the second edition that the same event is happening in the
old capital.
The festival’s publicist
Dereck Nyirenda said visitors to the festival will explore the green city at
the foot of a 2,000 mountain through moving from one venue to the other.
“Zomba City Festival is truly a city festival, with the mission
of celebrating the historic college city by highlighting its many attractions,”
Nyirenda said.
Some of the activities happening on the event are Live Music
performance, Poetry, Local Dances, Mountain Biking and Coffee tasting, and many
more
Meanwhile, the festival
will be headlined by over 50 acts and open to all ages.
The festival will feature
a number of artists like Chizmo Sting, Sangie, Dali, Quest, Praise Umali, Bee
Jay, Waliko Makhala, Nyago, Luki247, Ishan Cyapital and The Wave Mw.
Performances are
scheduled at Botanical Garden, Pakachere, Gymkhana Club, The Heritage Centre
and The Mixed, as well as DJ sets in the morning at Sunbird Ku Chawe.
Zomba City Festival is organised by Zomba Arts Platform (Zap), a
non- profit organisation that supports art in the country through training,
internships, public relations services, event solutions and artists management.
The festival, in collaboration with European Film Festival, is
also set to screen Fatsani movie alongside a German film Der
Ganz Grossen Traum. The screenings will take place at Mango Lodge on the
opening day Friday.
After a successful outing last year, which pulled an impressive audience, the festival is looking for success in the second edition.
Lilongwe based Female Gospel Artist Fortune Dent is set to release
her debut album titled "A Wonder" on May 16th 2022.
This comes few days after she has released her
first single from the album “Chisomo Chanu” featuring Kondwani Chirwa.
“I am currently working on releasing my first
album titled "A Wonder because I believe God does incredibly wonderful
things beyond man's imagination, reasoning and understanding”,.
“A Wonder is a track that is carrying a message of adoration for God that He is a Wonder and Him being a Wonder, He has made each of His children a Wonder as well,”.
Born Nancy Fortune Dent started loving Gospel Music at a tender age but her music journey unveiled in 2014.
In 2020 she released lots of tracks that include Udindo, Tisamakhale choncho,Thandizani Osowa, Covenant Keeping God, Redeemer of my life .All these singles and her recent track Chisomo Chanu will also be part of the project.
You can Stream/Download "Chisomo
Chanu" by following this link https://uzimuvibes.weebly.com/.../stream-download-chisomo...
This comes few days when
Celestial City through the Ministry embarked on the project that will see
youths in the country being equipped with technological initiatives.
Fredokiss has been appointed as the champion for the project,
having been instrumental in working with young people and artists in different
initiatives.
Through his artistry, Fredokiss has inspired and motivated many
young people in the country, encouraging them to work hard and utilize their
potential.
Following his appointment, Fredokiss last Thursday presented a technological skills document to Ministry of Labour.
Speaking after receiving the proposal from Celestial City, Minister of Labour Vera Kamtukule said her ministry recognizes the potential of the creative sector in job creation as well as skills development. She said she was optimistic that the project would benefit many youths and that the proposal was in line with the job creation strategy that is focusing on the impact of the youth in achieving the respective objectives.
“The youth are an integral part in building the nation as long
as they have the skills and are well trained. This proposal, I feel, will
enable youths to be employed remotely, thus providing labour compensation
inflows in line with the government’s job creation strategy,” Kamtukule said.
Fredokiss, real name Penjani Kalua, said he was happy that the
government through Ministry of Labour had partnered Celestial City.
Through the proposal, the
platform also plans on hosting concerts for major and independent artists
globally.
“I feel we all have a part to play. I am looking forward to the
implementation of this project and to see youths benefitting,” Fredokiss said.
Celestial City is an initial song offering platform built on Web
3.0, which is the third generation of internet services for websites and
applications that will focus on using a machine-based understanding of data to
provide data-driven and semantic web results.
Headed by Former Vodacom Executive, Nkechi Newton, Celestial
City has a roaster of industry veterans including Global Creative Marketing
Executive at Netflix, Tamara Johnson.
Beracah. Performing on stage
Christian record label Umodzi Music Group has organized a live music experience with Beracah on 30th April at Flood Church in Lilongwe.
The
event is to celebrate his musical life.
Posting
on his Facebook page Beracah attributed about news.
“My musical journey has been nothing short of
God’s mercy, his grace and his love. So I would love to share the experience of
this journey with you on the 30th of April”, said the artist.
Meanwhile, the show will be spiced up by music
from Saxess who has been invited as quest artist.
Beracah, real name Beracah Ntodwa is an RnB
singer and songwriter from Zomba.
Beracah started music at the age of 14 when he
was in secondary school before recorded his first in 2011, a song that helped
him to get in touch with Umodzi Music Group.
Till to date the artist is currently under
Umodzi Music Group.
To his discography the artist has two projects, Inside Out (EP) released in 2020 and Follow (EP) released in 2021.
For more music visit the link https://beracah.fanlink.to/FollowEP
Lilongwe based upcoming christian hip-hop artist Keith Timotheus has released a music video for his new single “Sanadziwe” which he feature Kissinger Jr.
The song got released on 22nd was premiered on
Zodiak and Times Television
According to the artist, Sanadziwe is a song
that tells
a tale of the evils of society and family issues such as impact of divorces on
children, which mostly leaves the children feeling insecure and unloved.
”It actually serves as an advice to the young people that being a young lady or a young man doesn't equal chaos, it is possible to be young and be fully sold out for Christ and live for God entirely”,.
Sanadziwe is song that is inspired 2 Scriptures: Ephesians 6:1-3 and 2 Corinthians 6:20.
Keith further added that people should expect more from him this year.
“And people should expect an Exended Playlist (EP), more music videos, more collaborations with different artists,”.
Born Keith Timothy Kafisi started his music journey in 2015 and he is founder of musical group “THE RESSURECTION”.
Keith has shared stage together with some international artists like Martin PK and some well known local artists like Suffix, Kelvin Sings, Mastol, Mista Gray, Sir Creedy, Beuce Africa among others.
Till to date, he has managed to record four singles.
In 2019, Timotheus was awarded Best Gospel Rap Artist of LUANAR - NRC Campus and Best Gospel Artist of LUANAR - NRC Music Awards 2020. Recently, he was also nominated for the Best Song of The Year of RFPMAM 2021 Presidential Awards for his single “Sanadziwe”, Global Best Upcoming Music Artist award of RFPMAM and Best RFPMAM Artist of RFP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3qdKmzX-AU
Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) Executive Director Dora
Makwinja admitted that fighting piracy was a big challenge.
And with technology moving at a fast pace, research shows that
users across Africa are going online to consume pirated content – striking a
serious blow to the sustainability of Africa’s content-creation industries.
This traffic forms part of the total 345.4 million visits by
worldwide users to piracy sites last year. The most popular content piracy site
tracked by Irdeto attracted 92.2 million visits during the survey period from
Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa to Tanzania.
“Anytime someone accesses, shares or sells copyrighted content
without authorization, they are committing content piracy,” Mark Mulready from
Cyber Services at Irdeto said.
According to Mulready, streaming piracy is the biggest threat to content owners, broadcasters and operators.
“The content most often pirated via the internet is software, music, literature and video content, including live sports and the latest series and movies. With more powerful mobile devices, a Smartphone alone can be used for sophisticated cyber piracy,” he said.
With growing accessibility to internet bundles and Malawi’s
burgeoning creative industry, the local arts industry is also susceptible to
the knock-on effects that result from digital piracy.
“Demand to buy local content is largely
diminished due to piracy. Movie theatres, television broadcasters and streaming
platforms would be less willing to acquire a product that has already been
viewed by their target clientele,” Khumbo Munthali, music promoter and producer
of the film Highbrow said.
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“When work produced by artists is pirated, the creative
professionals do not get their deserved revenue from their work. This means
artists and creative’s struggle to make a living through their craft, which is
demotivating,” Sukali said.
He said piracy also discourages artists from investing in
equipment and talent development as well as to produce more content that can
represent Malawian stories locally and across the continent.
In Africa, for instance, individuals and large organizations
that share content without paying the license fees owed to the creators, license
holders and distributors seriously threaten the sustainability of the creative
sector and this robs content creators, artists and the entire creative
community value chain of their royalties.
MultiChoice Malawi and Cosoma have backed efforts being made
through Pan-African Partners Against Piracy initiative, whose focus is to fight
the scourge of piracy and protect livelihoods of thousands of professionals who
depend on the content industry to feed their families, hone their craft and
support local economy.
Makwinja said development comes with challenges and that piracy
was one of them.
“We need to find ways of controlling it and one of them is the
blank media levy initiative which countries are utilizing. We cannot police it
but rather look at compensation and also monetizing content,” she said.
Makwinja also said, within the Copyright Act, artists have the
power to employ technological protection to their works.
“We also have gone into an agreement with a licensing agency in
South Africa which monitors works for our members but there is more to be done.
In partnership with MultiChoice, we have also been looking at signal piracy,”
she said.
MLAKA—I am here not to compete with anyone
Renowned musician
Pastor Mlaka Maliro has said that he will release his 13th album The Risen King
in July this year.
The ‘Dzanja Lalemba’
star, who has already dropped two songs off the album namely ‘Permanent’
currently enjoying airplay on One Gospel and Trace Gospel and the latest
‘There’s No Wine,’ which has created discussion on social media, said he was
targeting the launch on his birthday.
“It would be perfect
to launch the album on my birthday which is in July and, so, I can confirm that
I will have it ready during that time,” the musician, who goes by the moniker
Mlaka ndi Mlaka, said.
The release of the
reggae track ‘There’s No Wine’ follows his resignation from Enlightened
Christian Gathering Jesus Nations (ECGJN) Church.
ECGJN has since
released a statement on Mlaka’s resignation, the church clarifying a number of
issues.
The church has
underlined that Pastor Mlaka is a great leader and that in three years he has
served their ministry – from being a resident pastor in several branches in
South Africa to become National Pastor, Pastor, Mlaka showed great leadership
skills both as a minister of the gospel and an administrator.
“In this vein, Prophet
Shepherd Bushiri wishes Pastor Mlaka well and he is confidently resolute that
wherever Pastor Mlaka goes, he will always achieve greatness,” the statement
reads further.
Mlaka said he would
prefer not to comment anything on ECGJN statement.
“For now, I and my
wife would not say anything,” he said.
In ‘There’s No Wine,
as a pastor, Mlaka sings in English and Chichewa that he is on a pulpit ready
to preach the word of God and tells the story in the Bible of Jesus Christ and
His mother Mary when they went to a wedding reception and whilst there, Mary
told her son Jesus that wine be depleted.
He said on Sunday that
in the song, he is talking about how things are right now on the political
front where people are complaining that life is tough and that on the religious
front, the devil has entered churches.
OPENED UP ABOUT HER STRUGGLES
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For any artistic person to have their juices flow freely in as
far as creativity is concerned, it requires that they must have all their
faculties in order. It goes without saying that for one to produce something
comprehensible and worth listening to, looking at or reading; the person must
be of sane mind.
During a study called Attitude towards mental illness in Malawi,
which was done in 2012 by Jim Crabb, Robert Stewart, Demoubly Kokota et al,
most people attributed mental disorder to alcohol and illicit drug abuse.
Others went on to mention brain disease as well as spirit possession and,
finally, psychological trauma. According to the researchers, however, no
consistent trends were observed in stigmatizing beliefs.
That gives one an overall glimpse of the mental health scenario
in the country and though there have not been that many cases in the arts
circles, one cannot rule out situations where we have had artists struggling to
exorcist their ghosts such as drug and alcohol abuse.
From the likes of Third Eye, Martse all the way to Klassik; they
have all, at one point in time, opened up about their struggles with issues
such as alcoholism and drugs.
Another famed artist who has had her fair share of mental issues is South African singer Zahara, famed for hits such as ‘Loliwe,’ who, in April 2021, signed with the record label Warner Music. She had admitted during an interview with Channel O that she turned to the bottle way back and was using alcohol as a ‘stress reliever’. Her battles with depression are well documented.
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Many people were worried when a video emerged last year showing
the talented singer, seemingly intoxicated, in the company of some men. It is
said, however, that since inking her new record deal, Zahara has changed a lot.
You will therefore understand the shock and disbelief that
accompany any news that emerges showing that an artist is struggling with
mental health issues, or worse still, dies from depression and related issues,
not just in Malawi but even beyond the country’s borders.
Such was the feeling among those who follow arts when South
African rapper Ricky Rick reportedly committed suicide on February 23 2022.
This shook the entertainment industry and it even got some of Malawi’s own
stars talking about mental health issues.
“Brethren, let’s normalize checking on each other. Sometimes we
come here and present ourselves as if everything is okay, yet there are silent
battles being fought behind the scenes.
“We may pretend we are strong here, yet we are going through
hell and we don’t even know what to do. Depression is one monster that is
tormenting us and taking our beloved ones,” Thocco Katimba wrote on his
Facebook page.
This stance by some of our artists, who have decided to speak
out on the subject, is something that has to be encouraged. It is time people
started talking openly about such matters and, where need be, use their
creativity to address the matter of mental health.
In January this year, veteran South African actor Patrick Shai
took his own life and was allegedly found hanging by his wife in their
matrimonial home. His death came only days after he had been cruelly criticized
by Twitter trolls in response to a video in which he had challenged rapper
Cassper Nyovest to a boxing match.
One of his close friends, Thabang Sefotho, had said the actor
confided in him about the mental anguish he was experiencing during his final
days.
It is, therefore, worth noting that every time such incidents
occur, it shows that, too often, the society tends to ignore or look away from
such pertinent matters and, as a result, people get hurt under circumstances
that could have otherwise been avoided or, worse still, lives are lost
needlessly.
It, therefore, felt kind of re-assuring in light of Ricky Rick’s
death to see some of the local faces in entertainment circles raising their
voices on social media forums, advising fans and the public at large on the
need to give the issue of mental health the attention it deserves.
“Let’s take mental health issues seriously! We have another
monster in our midst,” actor Ashukire Mwakisulu wrote on his Facebook page.
Global Entertainment Icons Raising Voices
It is not only the continent of Africa that is trying to get to
grips with mental health issues such as depression. Even the entertainment
mecca, Hollywood in the United States of America has had its fair share of
having celebrities struggle with mental illness issues. Artists such as Katy
Perry, singer actress and producer Selena Gomez have opened up on such
struggles while world renowned figures like Prince Harry, Kim Kardashian have
also spoken on the issue.
One of the most memorable cases in Hollywood that saddened the
world and, in a way, tried to bring attention to the issue of mental health,
was the death of comedian and actor Robin Williams. He died by suicide in 2014
at the age of 63. It is reported that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s
disease, but an autopsy showed he had Lewy body disease.
National Institute on Aging, on its website, defines Lewy body
dementia (LBD) as ‘a disease associated with abnormal deposits of a protein
called alpha-synuclein in the brain and the deposits, called Lewy bodies,
affect chemicals in the brain whose changes, in turn, can lead to problems with
thinking, movement, behavior and mood.
One can, therefore, see from the above that much as Williams was
known as a jovial fellow and, would easily turn around the hype of any
perceived dull moment, there were some ‘demons’ that were haunting him and
sadly, he took his life without the world even realizing that their famed
comedian was not his usual self.
Thus, the local entertainment industry ought to now raise the
profile of mental health issues to ensure that artists, and people at large,
who are faced with such struggles, get to seek help in time or simply reach out
to someone who can lend an ear.
Nyau Nyau One of the country’s comedians Felistus Ngwira, popularly known as Nyauyu, has called for partnerships for a girls’ motivational...
