Fitzgerald Munyoro

ZIMBABWEAN born South Africa based award winning songstress ShaSha said she intends to do more musical collaborations with local artistes following the positive feedback attained from her duet with Zimbabwean R&B artiste Hillzy.

Addressing journalists in Mutare during a homecoming press conference yesterday (Wednesday), ShsSha whose real name is Charmaine Mapimbiro labelled herself as a diverse artiste and expressed eagerness at the idea of doing more projects with Zimbabwean artistes both locally based and those outside the country like her.

ShaSha’s collaboration track with talented crooner Hillzy, real name Hillary Chipunza titled ‘Goobye’ was recently premiered on October 9 and barely five days after, the video has already got over 140 000 views on YouTube. At the time of going to press, the song is third on trending items on YouTube.

Hillzy

“Working with Hillzy was really fun and different from the type of music which I have been making for a while, which is Amapiano.Without giving out names, I am currently in the process of engaging various local artistes. Very soon,you will hear the music,”said ShaSha. “There are a lot of talented artistes here in Zimbabwe and the quality of music is good too and I look forward to engaging some artistes that I feel I can mesh well with,”added the rising Amapiano queen.

Amapiano is a style of house music that emerged in South Africa in 2012. It is a sophisticated hybrid of deep house mixed with a jazzy soulful sound of the piano and lounge music characterized by wide basslines. Since she started her musical journey in South Africa in 2017, ShaSha who is signed to Sony Music has been working with various musicians notably DJ Maphorisa and Samthing Soweto to produce hit songs such as ‘Tender love’, ‘Something for you’, ‘Abondaba’, ‘Emazulwini’, among other songs.

ShaSha also revealed that the late Dr Oliver Mtukudzi had an indirect yet positive role in her artistic growth and development. She mentioned the late Tuku as he was affectionately known alongside Australian songwriter Sia and British pop star Ed Sheeran as having had a remarkable effect on how she views music.

The late super star Oliver Mtukudzi.

“Mostly Oliver Mtukudzi is my biggest inspiration. Growing up we listened a lot to Oliver Mtukudzi. He is a Zimbabwean act that started from home and he flourished and became a huge international act, so that is a huge inspiration. With the other artistes I like their vocals and song writing talent,” she said.

The journey of the beautiful 26 year old songstress in the music industry can only be described as “meteoric.” With only three years experience on her artistic résumé in the highly competitive SA music industry, ShaSha has a lot to brag about. 2020 will however go down as the year that set her on a collision course with superstardom after she scooped the coveted Viewer’s Choice Best International Act award at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards held in June, surpassing phenomenal nominees, Nigeria’s Rema, Celeste and Young T & Bugsey of the United Kingdom as well as France’s duo of Hatik and Stacy.

ShaSha during a press conference at Holiday Inn Mutare yesterday (Wednesday).

ShaSha who grew up in Mutare for the greater part of her teenage and adulthood became the first Zimbabwean to be nominated for a BET award. The BET Awards is an annual American awards show established by Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate African Americans and other American minorities that would have excelled in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment.