AWARD-WINNING musician Vusa Mkhaya is set to re-release his celebrated third album, UManyanyatha — Songs from the Soul of Zimbabwe, for the international market.
BY SHARON SIBINDI
The album features the hugely popular tracks, Abalalanga and Umanyanyatha, which have over the years captured the hearts of many and received limitless airplay.
The 13-track album, which was previously released independently in 2016 as UManyanyatha by Mkhaya Music Productions and will be re-released internationally under Naxos Records Canada on June 26, with additional songs digitally re-mastered under a new title.
Mkhaya, who was recently awarded the Outstanding Artiste in the Diaspora gong at this year’s National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA), told NewsDay Life & Style that the album was inspired by life events.
“The songs on the album are all inspired by different life events and questions that affect people in my hometown and beyond,” he said.
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In a Press statement, Mkhaya Music Productions said Mkhaya embodied the sound of the streets of Tshabalala in Bulawayo.
“He captures the romanticism of the southern African climes, his voice rich with the vibrations of a heritage that spans decades of musical writing and performance,” reads the statement in part.
Mkhaya is part of the vocal trio Insingizi and has gained commercial success since their 2004 debut album, Voices of Southern Africa/Spirit of Africa, which sold over 250 000 units in North America.
His solo projects — The Spirit of Ubuntu (2006), Vocalism (2012) and now UManyanyatha — are emotive musical stories of love, heartbreak and everyday living.
In 2019, he was bestowed with the UK-Zim Achievers honorary award for Service to Music and Cultural Promotion.