WE HAVE to ask and we deserve honest answers. We have many arrows pointed at the recording companies, the obvious power brokers in the non-actualizing music industry in Zim.
Why, why? Why is it that Pengaudzoke, one of long time and prolific music outfits (and so dear to Zimbabweans) don’t fly their own Leah Jets or at least drive around in Hummers? Why is that it took Tuku over two decades to achieve stability when he ranks amongst the globe’s A list?
Why did Leonard Dembo deserve a pauper’s burial (painful!) when he was the 1st artiste to sell multiple platinum (what is more Chitekete rocked world class audiences at some yester year Miss World in SA then)? Why did the legendary Nicholas Zacharia once had to trade a promising career (and chance to be famous) for driving sweaty non-power steering monster trucks? Some one somewhere has to answer honestly; a call to morality- talk, come on we are on talkzim after all!
As for me, let me dwell on the “here and now”. Alick Macheso is breaking cord with music promoters (some so dear to him he sings about them all time) to arrange his own shows, why? Plain simple; this chunk of streetwise promoters havefor a long time taken advantage of lack ofbusiness sense (not aproblem in itself) in the artiste, dangle a shriveled carrot and let him do all the “hot sweat” work while they make off with an undeserved and disproportionately huge slice of thecherry. Remember many have always labeled Cheso Power a dim wit, a bharanzi who has more talent than brains.
Not any more, how times change and the chickens are coming home to roost. Macheso is smart! He is determined to go it alone and has already started despite vilifications from some sections of the media who obviously have suspicious motives in their commentaries.
Isn’t it an anti climax or curious that our best acts rock their significant others from their coat-tails when the global trend is acts, like Madonna the best selling female artist of all time, are being propelled to dizzy heights by promotion companies?
A little talk to the power brokers on the music scene (we will not go off rail in a barrage, we could, it’s easier). Sufficeth to say we’re living in a world in which the most important assets on the resources continuum are the soft ones, the human skill.
When we do transactions with Tuku, Macheso, Tongai Moyo, et al let’s try and reach for a life-long relationship. Even dogs do a fall-for-me-I-fall-for-you jolly kind of companionship, not the hare-baboon chicanery. It’s weak in the long-term.
It is possible to revive friends with our top celebs on a give-and- take, that way we create a real and vibrant music industry.
READER OPINIONS
Chau • n/a Subject: Mupepi Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:28:32 • You seem to have nailed it for me. Showbiz in Zim has always trailed behind everywhere else that matters in the world because of plain exploitation of talent. Maybe our artistes have something to do with it too. They seem to be content with hearing themselves on radiograms or television while some cunning business people run away with the spoils.
I was hurt to see Tangwena dressed like a tramp and selling his tapes from a cardbord box at Mereki to revellers some of whom offered him left-overs from Mai Fafi's stall. The man is talented beyond doubt, but he is wallowing in the brown stuff all the same!
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