Malawi24’s Upclose: get to know musician Don Kalonga

You help your soul with his music but he is a dark horse, don’t worry you are about to leave behind your days of ignorance on musician Don Kalonga whom we shine the spotlight on in this edition of Malawi24 Up close.

Dickson Kalonga Thawani better known by his stage name Don Kalonga, is a Malawian recording artist, songwriter, and performer who was born 25 years ago.

His music journey started at the age of 13 when he recorded his first song. It was not until 2012 when he started serious recording.

In that year he recorded Ndikamakuwona which influenced his family to support him in his music endeavours. “At first it was hard for the family to support my music until 2012 after recording Ndikamakuwona, now I got all the support from family. Don is a master of RnB and Afro sounds. In the aforementioned genres, he has four singles; Ndikamakuwona, Kodi Ndi Chani, Wanna Marry You featuring Dan Lu, and Madam. “God has been blessing me since day one in the industry, so far I have managed to build the name in Don Kalonga locally which is the most important thing in music,” he said.

With his single Wanna Marry You still making noise, the 25 year-old has past music experiences to refer to. He has worked with a number of local and international artists since the onset of his career.

“I have managed to collaborate with other international artists Like Wil Buda (Zambia) Mickey Yucce (Nigeria) Jay Thompson (Ghana) currently Destructive Twins (South Africa) & Dj Lihle (South Africa),” he said.

Kalonga considers working with Dan Lu on the local scene among the main highlights of his career.

“I have achieved big things in working with Dan Lu who happens to be one of my mentors, I must say working with him was a dream come true. The collaboration with Dan Lu really changed many things in my music because I had to work with Propee for the first time, it was really the experience of lifetime. I felt something big is gonna come out, at first I was like really? Today I am working with Propee and Dan Lu? It was a dream until the Djz woke me up with nonstop air plays,” he said.

The capital city boy points the following producers as being part of his developing success story in music; Janta, DJ Sley, Propee, Ohbie, Anthony Makuta, DJ Ok, Madela, Gaffa, and C & O Kabawo. So far he has three visuals which were all shot by Satellite Entertainment.

His video for Wanna Marry You was nominated for best video of the year accolade on Zodiak Television.

Kalonga is not signed under any record label but he has made strides to get his music on top global music sites like waptrick and wapdam.