Photo courtesy of Shamie.
7 November 2012
Zimbabwean Afro soul music artist Shamie Mabvudzi talks to GroundUp about the challenges he faces as an immigrant in South Africa. His third album African Dream is due out this month.
Mabvudzi came to Cape Town in 2006 searching for opportunities to develop his music career. He has had commercial success in Europe, Australia and Canada. He is also a DJ for One Afro Radio, which describes itself as serving the music needs of African and Caribbean communities around the world. He lives in Parow valley.
The 35-year-old musician said it was a great opportunity to migrate to Cape Town because meeting people from different backgrounds, particularly musicians, inspired him.
In 2010, he released his second solo album titled The Journey. It sold over 400 copies through Facebook in Australia and Germany. Chenai, Huya and Uhambo are the most popular songs from the album.
In August 2011, he released his first online single Babey Ndipe, taken from his forthcoming album African Dream. It reached over 500 downloads in three days. Next year sees him heading on tour to Australia, the UK and Canada to promote his album due out this month.
He is one of the few Zimbabweans whose music is being played by Cape Town radio stations. He hopes his new album will help him crack the African market.
Mabvudzi says, “I also face the same challenges as other immigrants such as discrimination but I believe excelling depends on one’s passion. My policy is that I work with anyone who is willing to work with me, no matter what class or race. I live for music.”
He finds the lack of technology in the Zimbabwean music industry to be a challenge. ”I have to send 150 CD copies to be shared by the Zimbabwe radio stations. Here in Cape Town, everything is computerized. When they want to play my music they just search for my name and the music will appear.”
Mabvudzi spoke of how difficult it is to convince people to listen to music that is not in their language. His advice to beginners is to improvise with the resources they have and persevere. He said he could not have become successful without support from Adiktive Streetgear, who sponsor his photo shoots and provide clothes for his gigs. He also thanks his marketing team and producers for their support.
Shamie is signed to Afri Kalcha Entertainment. You can keep up to date on his progress on Facebook and Twitter.