Zhakata launches album in style

By Tawanda Marwizi

It seems most artistes understand the purpose of unity as well as the need to support each other to push their careers forward.

Musicians Alick Macheso, Suluman Chimbetu and Peter Moyo joined Zora musician Leonard Zhakata as he officially unveiled his “Mutunga Dzese” album at the Harare International Conference Centre on Friday.

Gone are the days when musicians would snub each other at events because of purported “beef”.

The coming of these musicians at the launch brought more exciting moments to the event.

Camera-shy Zhakata, in his speech, thanked the artistes who came to support him.

“I am happy to be supported with the musicians here. If we keep this unity definitely we will do better in the industry,” he said.

The musician introduced his wife to the public at launch much to the delight of merrymakers.

Owner of Herentals Group of Colleges Innocent Dambudzo Benza and long-time sponsor of the musician bought the CD for $2 000 cash.

Benza, who was accompanied by his family, thanked Zhakata for honouring his fans through an exceptional album launch.

“This is a great honour for us as Zhakata fans and we will keep giving him the support he requires,” said Benza.

The musician performed some of the songs from the album before being joined by Macheso and his band members; dancer Majuice and drummer Obert Gomba, on the song “Mugove”.

For the first time the “Mugove” hitmaker had a collaboration with Chimbetu and Progress Chipfumo on the song “Madam Boss”.

Some of the songs on the album are the title track, “Zvine Mwaka”, “Tsvimbo Dzeumambo”, “Wauya Neyi”, “Moyo Wekutenda” and “Kuzvarwa Kwemutumwa” among others.

He is optimistic that the new album will make it big on the local scene.

“I have done all that I could for the people and we hope they will accept it,” he said. Speaking at the launch, Macheso said it was high time musicians set aside their differences and worked together.

“Unity is key and this is the time we should set aside our differences and work together to give our fans real value for their money,” he said.

He said gone are the days when national events like galas would unite them.

“We used to be brought together by national events like galas but now they are hardly done and do we have to wait for someone to tell us we need unity?” he quipped.

Macheso hailed Zhakata for his hard work saying he was one of the musicians that had managed to maintain momentum in the music industry. The Herald