Zahara back by Public demand

Zahara

South African music sensation Zahara makes a return to Zimbabwe for two concerts — one scheduled for Harare’s Borrowdale Racecourse and another in Bulawayo at Queens Sports Club. Zahara, who performed her first show in Harare in March this year, is back by what organisers said was “popular demand” and this time music lovers don’t have to wait for long before she hits the stage.

The Harare gig will be held on August 10 before Zahara and her band head for the City of Kings the next day. “She insisted that she travels by road because the last time she was here she didn’t have time to visit other towns,” Tawanda Chingara, one of the organisers said.

“Judging from the previous experience, we want fans to come early for the show because Zahara will hit the stage around 9pm or 10pm since she will be leaving the next morning for Bulawayo.” He said Zahara would be backed by a live band and supported by some of Zimbabwe’s sought-after musicians in the likes of Alexio Kawara and Prudence Katomeni- Mbofana.

However, there will be a special guest who is yet to be named but it is highly likely that South African-based Zimbabwean singer and Kaya FM’s George Munetsi and DJ Sbu will be part of the gig. George, who once described himself as a “newbie” in music, was featured on Zahara’s hit called “Incwadi Encane” which was voted Best Collaboration at this year’s

South African Music Awards. “Incwadi Encane” is a plea to a loved one who left for an unknown destination to return home. On the song George complements Zahara with Shona lyrics which interpret the whole story. It would be a big surprise if George turns out to be the guest on the show.
Zahara, who surprised the audience by saying she was “happy to be in Africa for the first time” when she came to Harare, is a singer, songwriter and poet born Bulelwa Mkutukana on November 9, 1987.

She started singing in a school choir at the age of six and at nine she was told to join the senior choir because of her strong voice. According to wikipedia, Zahara released her debut album “Loliwe” in 2011 which proved to be a big success as it went platinum in 13 days and went double platinum after just 17 days, selling over 100 000 copies in South Africa.

With “Loliwe”, Zahara became the second musician after the late Brenda Fassie to reach 100 000 sales figure in such record time. At the annual South African Music Awards, Zahara won eight awards, including Best Female Artiste and Album of the Year. Prior to the awards a media storm broke out about the state of her finances which were allegedly being poorly handled by her record company. However, her record company TS Records vehemently denied the allegations.

“She is the sixth of seven children. Her stage name Zahara means ‘blooming flower’ as a child she was known by the nickname Spinach.“Her music is classified loosely as ‘Afrosoul’ and she sings in her native language, Xhosa, as well as in English. “Her music has been described as a mixture between the styles that have been popularised by Tracy Chapman, India.Arie and the Nigerian singer Asa (pronounced as Usher).” Herald