Veteran musician Blak Jak, also known as Che Kalonda, has commended rising singer Emmie Deebo for publicly apologizing to her female counterparts following controversial remarks she made earlier this year.
Deebo, whose real name is Emily Zintambila, took to Facebook over the weekend to express remorse for her previous statements, admitting that some of her words were “painful and disappointing.”
“I want to sincerely apologise to everyone whom I wronged, especially my fellow female Artists,” Deebo wrote.
“I really want to start afresh in this life and let me start by kupepesa. Please ndinebe your little Sister Emmie.”
The apology stems from comments Deebo made in January on the Zanyimbo Podcast, where she boasted that no other Malawian female artist has performed 5 to 10 songs in South Africa while successfully getting the crowd to sing along.
She even offered two million kwacha to anyone who could disprove her claims.
Following those initial claims, Queen Mishu, a figure known for welcoming various Malawian artists in South Africa, was reached out to for verification but declined to comment.
Despite the backlash, Blak Jak believes the move to apologize is a positive step for the young artist’s career.
“She is young and futuristic and apologizing is a good gesture for her,” said Jak, who burst onto the music scene in the early 2000s under the group Nyasa Guruz.
He concluded by saying that Deebo should take lessons from this, because young artists sometimes get too excited and forget that fame is like a candle in the wind, beautiful, but easily extinguished.
“We have a small industry, and there is no permanence in the creative realm,” he said.
