THERE is a new prince of Zimbabwean pop. Jah Prayzah is the new prince of popular music — Prince because Tuku is still the King.
Admire KUDITA OWN CORRESPONDENT
But that’s not a detraction from the young musician who scooped four awards at the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) held in Bulawayo at the Rainbow Hotel on Saturday night.
His four awards were for outstanding musician, outstanding album, outstanding song and the coveted people’s choice award.
The last award is based on the tally of votes submitted via an online voting platform. This ward is the perfect litmus of who is truly hot in the local music scene and Jah Prayzah, backed by his Third Generation band who he wisely acknowledged in a speech, rightly deserved the honour.
“People see Jah Prayzah, but I am just the public face. I want to thank my band 3rd Generation who back me,” he said upon receiving one of his several awards.
Jah Prayzah’s real name is Mukudzei Mukombe and he had a huge year last year with his album Tsviriyo and title track making it to outstanding song category and snagging it. Obviously Matthias Mhere and Guspy Warrior were left smarting from their loss in that category.
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But as the saying goes, when you are hot, you are hot. Jah Prayzah is the triumphant musician of the moment. Pop music gives artistes their moments. Famous United States fine artiste Andy Warhol called it “15 minutes of fame” as an indication of the fleeting nature of fan adulation in the dubious universe of showbiz.
Bulawayo or Mutare-based musicians may never win this award for as long as radio air play remains as skewered as it is in favour of artistes based in Harare. The master of master of ceremonies? To be fair, Babongile Sikhonjwa handled his business brilliantly with his combination of sardonic wit and humour. He did many things right. He is an artiste himself.
The delivery was flawless with several custom changes including an Arab sheik’s regalia as the show closed. It was strange choice, but intriguing nonetheless.
Singer and broadcaster Patience Musa was her usual eloquent self, but she clearly had nothing on Sikhonjwa whose gift Bulawayo residents have long been in the loop about.
Sikhonjwa came to the party and had Zimbabwe eating out of his hands. In our books, the multi-lingual Sikhonjwa is the go-to guy should you need an impresario for your event anywhere in Zimbabwe. Right on the money!
Our lady of music The National Arts Council’s decision to bring an artiste whom we consider a worthy candidate for the Freedom of the City award Dorothy Masuka was a clever one. The legendary musician wore a glitzy ensemble and graced the awards ceremony with her commanding presence.
Now 78 years old, Auntie Dot as she is fondly known, has spent over six decades in showbiz and here is one artiste who epitomises longevity, excellence, royalty, grace and intellect.
She has written a corpus of songs that have made many an artiste from Hugh Masekela, Letta Mbulu and Miriam Makeba world famous.
“Singers never die, they live on. As I was sitting there I was being entertained by the music of Chiwoniso Maraire (that was playing in the background at intervals during the awards),”she said upon taking to the stage.
Sandra Ndebele, who shared the stage with Dorothy Masuka, seems to recognise the gap locally in terms of senior female singer to mentor the upcoming ones.
“It seems I have to be the gogo (mentor) and example to the upcoming ones in the same way ugogo Masuka is to all of us,” she said in a chat with this writer in the morning after the event at Rainbow.
We couldn’t agree more. Her spirit showing no sign of abating, Masuka also expressed a desire to return to Bulawayo to perform for two hours before catching her flight back to Jo’burg! (watch this space for an album review and exclusive interview that Southern Eye bagged with the legend)
The big steal The representative of the winner of the outstanding dance group category, 8 Count could not hide his incredulity at winning the award. “It’s too crazy right now, “ he stuttered on stage. His incredulity was not his alone as this writer was totally baffled with the judges decision.
Umkhathi Theatre Works was robbed. By what stretch of the imagination does a group who win the national dance championships, are invited to tour successfully overseas to massive critical acclaim by papers such as the Washington Post among others, while gracing major local stages and festivals fail to be the outstanding dance group? This writer, after having being insensed by the travesty, pressed arts council officials for answers and for them to reveal the judges’ identity or contacts for clarification, but could not make headway.
Matesu Dube was his usual calm self when asked to comment on the development only saying: “Well, we didn’t nominate ourselves. Other people did and maybe they did not submit all our material I don’t know happened.”
Be that as it may, doesn’t the team claim to have monitors throughout the year monitoring the artists to see who is excelling etc.
Outstanding female musician Olivia Charamba pipped crowd favourite Selmor Mtukudzi and Edith Katiji to the prize. Some folks were not amused.
This does not have anything to do with the fact of gospel musician Olivia Charamba’s musicianship. It simply has to do with the fact that she has not released any new music for a while.
The selection criteria was, therefore, hazy to music lovers. The national arts council’s acting director Nick Moyo was at pains to explain to this writer how the decision was arrived at.
“People need to know that each category has a different criteria. In this case, releasing an album in the year under review does not necessarily make you a winner. Other things to look for are the presence or visibility of the artiste during the year like how many shows did that artiste do during the year,” explained Moyo before giving assurance that he would e-mail the selection criteria.
Following his logic, if the release of a successful album in the year under review is not important, then the criteria maybe considered somewhat subjective.
Finally, the local organising team including Jomo Mhone, Sarah Mpofu and Simon Mambazo Phiri again excellently lived up to the challenge given the short notice they had. Local businesses commendably came to the assistance in having Bulawayo host the Namas for the second year running.
