BY SHOWBIZ REPORTER
HARARE
With her sultry, knowing look and chocolate skin, it’s easy to see why 22-year-old Avril Kundai Mhembere became the second Africa princess at the Miss Tourism Queen International held in China last week.
She beat 113 hopefuls drawn across the world to win the Miss Tourism International Africa contest, comprising some of the most beautiful women in the world.
An ordinary lass from Chitungwiza, Avril dazzled as she grabbed worldwide fame last week, her front page picture likely to spark the beginning of great things for her modelling career.
Mhembere strutted her stuff on stage in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province, last week, clinching the third best in the African category, which was won by Angola’s Luisa Patricia Agostinho Manuel.
A psychology student at Africa University, Avril would not have been in China had it not been for the fact that Miss Tourism Zimbabwe, Cynthia Muvirimi, went into exile soon after winning the crown, and only returned to Zimbabwe to receive her prize, disappearing again to London soon after. Avril was her first princess.
In Cynthia’s absence, Avril had to stand in. And with her sparkling eyes and sweet smile, she stood out. She has now brought the prize home and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority bosses are thrilled.
It was a remarkable feat, said ZTA boss Karikoga Kaseke. This was a proper beauty contest. It was about beauty and intelligence. Winning that competition was the start of everything for her. We are absolutely happy about this, he added.
Noisettes crack the festival scene
Shingai Shoniwa of The Noisettes.
BY SHOWBIZ REPORTER
LONDON
Zimbabwean-fronted Indie rockers the Noisettes are to perform at this year’s Celebrating Sanctuary festival on Sunday, June 15 at Bernie Spain Gardens on London’s South Bank.
The Noisettes are fronted by the supremely talented and beautiful vocalist and bass player Shingai Shoniwa, who sings like Billie Holiday while patrolling the stage like an Amazonian warrior with an eye for fashion.
The Zimbabwean Londoner howls and soothes, gives you goose bumps and shoots soul into your main arteries.
Dan Smith, the second line of defence, wields his six-stringed axe around the stage like being a guitar god is going out of fashion. Bringing up the rear is Jamie Morrison, a drummer so heavy with his sticks and skin that audiences don’t notice he is more hair than man.
Playing ragged but energetic garage-influenced indie rock with the ferocity of punk but with a soulful, bluesy edge, the Noisettes are going supernova, burning up stages from Tokyo to NYC.
Celebrating Sanctuary, part of Refugee Week and the Coin Street Festival, gathers together musicians, dancers and artists from all corners of the globe to celebrate the positive cultural contribution of refugees to the UK.
Stars shine among the one-hit wonders
Rocqui
Musicians such as Rocqui and Ex-Que have managed to remain consistent in an emerging music genre where most of their urban groove contemporaries have produced one-hit wonders and vanished.
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BY SHOWBIZ REPORTER
HARARE
Ever noticed that a debut hit song can really mess things up for promising musicians, especially our own urban groovers?
Sure, it’s great to hear your song pouring out of the speakers in mall food courts, in car stereos, at KFC, in a bus, at Synergy, in Room 10, at parties, at Tiperary, Bira, Sports Diner, at Specimen, at Chikwanha, at ArdMbare or any other place you can think of.
It’s even better when you hear a crowd of thousands of people singing along. But it also creates many pressures and expectations that can make musicians feel like they’re putting too much emphasis on the wrong half of the phrase music business’.
Examples of one-hit wonders are plentiful. Maria Zaranyika’s bhogo bhogo, Ngoni’s Angela, MaAfrique’s Ndomuudza sei?, Sebede and his song Eho, are just some examples. The success of these urban groovers’ debut hit songs has been a somewhat double-edged swords, producing a massive crisis of expectation.
The above urban groove songs – lilting, joyful urban groove numbers that were born for singalongs – have been some of the most played songs on Zimbabwean radio in the last three years. Some of the songs maintained top 5 status on Zimbabwean radios for weeks. The songs’ ubiquity also led to sell-out national tours, and invitations to perform at national music galas and many other places.
Obviously these urban groovers’ breakthrough hits created a bounty of opportunities – maybe too many.
Now most of these musicians have failed to produce music that matches up to their earlier hits. Some radio DJs have even refused to sell their subsequent material.
Avid urban grooves music fan Jerry Moyo tells The Zimbabwean on Sunday most urban groovers are fly-by-night musicians.
Most of them produce one hit wonders and the rest of their music is an exact antithesis of their first cool hit songs, Jerry says.
Selmor, who refused to give her surname, says usually the debut hit songs go platinum because most urban groovers would have worked on those first songs probably for up to 10 years. Any subsequent material becomes mediocre, she says, because of the limited time and the celebrity mentality that creeps in.
But she is quick to point out that it is not always the case as there are urban groovers who have managed to hold out – people such as Rocqui, NAMA winner for best 2008 song, Ex-Que and others.
They just need to polish up their act, she says. There is need to regulate quality in the industry because, honestly, most of these guys produce junk. But there are brilliant musicians in this urban grooves genre. We need to emphasise this point, musicians such as Rocqui and Ex-Que, they have been consistent. But their colleagues in the industry are letting them down.
Post published in: Arts