BY SINDISO DUBE
WHEN the Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards organisers revealed the nominees for this year’s edition of the biggest dress-up event koBulawayo — the most important of all categories, not belittling others but the Song of the Year announcement left many in the packed Bulawayo Theatre all smiles and convinced except a few who felt the adjudicators could have done better.
Banjalo Abantu by rapper Cal_Vin, A.E.I.O.U by house songstress Novuyo Seagirl, Ebunandini by Maskhandi singer Zinjaziyamluma, Bekezela by gospel diva Lorraine Stot and Ng’zofel’othandweni by Mkhosi a Maskhandi artiste were nominated for Song of the Year award. The Song of the Year gong is considered as the biggest because it incorporates the crème de la crème of the awards, representing the soundtrack of an industry.
The Song of the Year category is a battle of genres, with each of the five songs representing a different genre.
With the public voting lines open and with the crowning moment on tonight, the Song of the Year category is a contest which might settle the argument over which genre has been popular in Bulawayo over the past year.
Cal_Vin’s Banjalo Abantu is one of the favourites to clinch the coveted gong after it won at last year’s Skyz Metro Music Awards in December.
The hip-hop track, fused with live instrumentation by outstanding music producer Nathaniel Oktopus has had a good run on the airwaves.
The track chronicles what Cal_Vin went through in building a relationship with his lover. He advises his woman not to listen to the words of naysayers who do not want to see them together.
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The song is indisputably a hit after Zkhuphani and Bebengakholwa. One cannot ignore Banjalo Abantu.
However, many critics raised concerns on why Asaph’s Mambo, which had ruled the roost throughout the year was nominated, I guess the adjudicators saw it fit to pick Banjalo Abantu, an equally great track, so Cal_Vin will represent hip-hop in the battle for genre supremacy.
After reigning supreme at last year’s Skyz Metro Music Awards, bagging the Best House Song and the Female Musician of the Year awards, before clinching the Best House Song of the Year award at this year’s Star FM Music Awards, it is not a contestation that Novuyo Seagirl’s A.E.I.O.U is a hit. The house track, produced by Lance Hebron, has topped many radio charts and has become an anthem in some music sections despite the unfortunate incidents where the pint-sized songstress was pelted on stage as she performed.
The song is an expression of love, how someone makes you go crazy in translation of the vowels AEIOU, where the chorus is born.
In the first verse, the letters are broken down, with the letter A translating to “Amazing is the way you look”, E to “Everything that you do just makes me wild”, I to “If I lose you I will lose my mind,” O to “Only you can have me the way you want,” and U to “You give me butterflies and goose bumps”.
Gospel diva Loraine Stot Maplanka comes in as a “surprise” nominee to many, but her discography shows she deserves to be named among the outstanding chanters.
Backed by a magnitude of gospel followers, the musician is likely to pose an upset tonight.
The song was launched on the artist’s birthday on October 24, 2018 on her website. It has sat on the apex of the Skyz Metro FM’s Gospel charts for two months and it is currently doing well on Ya FM in Zvishavane.
Top Maskandi singer Zinjaziyamluma comes in with a song dubbed Ebunandini (A Place of Fun). The track talks of a man who goes to gallivant at a common place, where imbibers and party lovers meet and dance the night away.
After the young party lover is intoxicated and has danced beyond his curfew, he pleads with his mother to come and take him home because he is afraid to face his strict father at home.
Another Maskandi banger Ng’zofel’othandweni by Johannesburg-based musician Mkhosi Ndlovu comes in to complete the list of Bulawayo’s soundtracks.
The track talks of how the current generation has prostituted marriage such that is no longer based on love, but materialism.
The artiste encourages the young generation to value marriage.
The Song of the Year category is too open and anyone to take it home. All the songs have been doing well in and around Bulawayo and beyond.
