Somanje turns to gospel

The veteran musician, whose latest album has clung to the top position at Radio Zimbabwe’s weekly Top 20 for the past five weeks, told The Zimbabwean in an exclusive interview “Turning gospel does not imply that I have abandoned Sungura Music altogether – I will mix both genres.” He said his latest Sungura album title tracked ‘Tele4nie’, would mark the turning point as it would be followed with gospel music.

Josephat’s latest album, ‘Tele4nie’, shot to the top of the charts soon after its release, emulating his previous hits such as This Time, which virtually became national anthems a few days after they hit the streets. The title track exposes the negative effects of advancement in communication technology through gadgets such as mobile phones. “Sometimes when spouses are relaxed and enjoying good times together as a family, it is the time when text messages or phone calls from either the husband’s girlfriend or the wife’s boyfriend come through. The other party would become suspicious and want to know the caller and the nature of business involved in the communication. Such calls tend to sour relations between the otherwise loving couples,” says Josephat.

Like other local musicians, he bemoaned the prevalence of music piracy which he blamed for ‘poor returns’. “The musician’s sweat and toil benefits pirates who continue to reap where they did not sow. Imagine a recording company selling less than a 100 original copies of an album, but the market ending up flooded with thousands of pirate copies,” he said.