Malawi’s northern city of Mzuzu is in its breakthrough days musically with a number of promising urban artists emerging from the city.
Mzuzu has for a long time trailed other cities, Blantyre and Lilongwe, in as far as entertainment is concerned.
This has been alluded to a number of factors.
People have argued that the northern administrative centre lacks the attractive power due to low population and underdevelopment as compared to Blantyre and Lilongwe, among others.
Against all odds, the city is producing trendsetters in urban music.
Its flag bearers include Tionge Hango, Lady Pace, DJ Ken Lo, Ril B, Black Family Face, Wakisa James, and K-Man to mention but a few.
Although things are seemingly going Mzuzu’s way music wise, there are still a number of hampering effects in the building process.
Speaking to Malawi24 on Thursday, Ril B decried lack of music promoters.
“Lack of promoters is hitting hard Mzuzu based artists. This makes it difficult for musicians this side to organise a show,” he said.
According to Ril B, well promoted artists from other cities enjoy the cheers whenever they hold a show in Mzuzu.
When asked about media coverage for Mzuzu produced works, the Mwini Zinthu hit maker did not concur with the majority view that local media sidelines the city.
In this period of great local urban music, it has been established that a song enjoys popularity on the condition of creativity and not where the artist who did it comes from.
In this respect, Blantyre and Lilongwe are highly populated with many good production studios as compared to Mzuzu, thus they have more renowned urban musicians.
Some musicians move to either of the major cities to have access to high quality production facilities. Renowned artist, Slessor, started his music journey in Mzuzu but made a name in Blantyre. The same applies to the late Revolver.
