Growing up in Karoi, young Tatenda Mahachi never dreamt that one day he would stand in front of big crowds spreading the word of God, but instead his dream was to don the green and white Caps United jersey and showcase his football artistry in the stadium.
By DON MAKANYANGA National Sports Stadium, home ground to Caps United, was his theatre of dreams until one day he was invited to join a choir by a friend at Chikangwe Secondary School in Karoi. Little did he know that this was the beginning of a great musical journey.
“I was never a musician from the start, as I always wanted to be a football player and play for my favourite team Caps United and up to this day when I am around I don’t miss a Caps United match,” said Mahachi.
“When I was doing Form 2, I was invited to join the choir and out of fun I complied. I felt it was interesting to sing in a choir or church and continued with my new found passion and went on to form a musical group with five of my friends.”
The group became popular as they took the farming town of Karoi by storm. They received numerous invitations to perform at different gatherings in and around Karoi. However, the group collapsed in 2005 when the boys disbanded to pursue different careers.
With a wide range of genres to pursue, Mahachi found himself pursuing gospel music.
“Gospel music is not just any another music that you just wake up and say I want to sing gospel music. I believe it’s more spiritual and has to be God speaking in your life and I feel that this is the passion that I have,” said Mahachi.
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But as a person who had found a soul in music he kept on doing music and was eager to record, but the harsh economic environment could not allow him. Only in 2007 did he manage to record his first album, Muyedzo. It was received well with the video of the title track finishing on number 10 on the Top 100 Video Charts in 2007.
“After my successful debut album, I began to find my footing in the music industry and I met Clive Mono Mukundu and recorded my second album, Kure, in 2010. It was well-received with the track, Vanogona, finishing seventh on the Top 100 and this encouraged me to keep on pushing,” he said.
Just like wine, the Karoi-born musician got better with age and in 2013 he was back in the studio to release his third album, Agare, which featured local songstress Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana. The song tilted, Ndibvumbamirei was a hit and stayed on top of the local gospel music charts for a record 22 weeks.
He reckons that his collaboration with Katomeni-Mbofana was the beginning of great things to come as the duet put him in the spotlight, which eventually saw him collaborating with South African multi-award winning artist Sifiso Ncwane this year, together with Sabastian Magacha.
“I must say this was the song that brought me into the spotlight and thank God for that. Recently I did a collaboration on my fourth album, Declarations, with Sifiso Ncwane on a track titled Ndoda Jesu/ Ngiyamuthanda uJesu and I am glad the song is doing well both locally and in South Africa,” said the 30-year-old musician.
Eight years after releasing his first album, Mahachi believes that he has matured.
“When I started I was still growing and getting to know the industry and I am happy that the Tatenda of 2007 is not the same Tatenda. Today, I am grown up musically and I am keen to learn more and you will see that in the next coming years I will be able to release my albums year-in, year-out,” he said.
Mahachi continues to dream big and to be ambassador of local music, following the footsteps of his childhood hero, Oliver Mtukudzi, setting his dream on the BET award.
“Mtukudzi has always been my role model and I like the originality of his music and how he has managed to be an ambassador of the local music. I am man on a mission to promote local music, thus why I am proud to sing in my mother language with foreign artistes,” he said.
His latest offering, Declarations, saw Mahachi being nominated for four awards at this year’s Permican Gospel Music awards and winning the best traditional album at the Courageous Awards. He said the nominations play a crucial role in his musical career as it motivates him to continue with his passion of spreading the word of God through music.
“I would like to thank God for what is happening in my life. I know it’s for God to award me and it’s good when you are being recognised. I prefer to call it recognition because the only award that I will have in my life will come from God and to be recognised with these awards it’s very important.
“Being nominated for those awards, it’s something which is very big to me and it really uplifts my spirit.
Unfortunately, I did not win but the nominations really mean a lot as it shows that I am going somewhere and it’s encouraging. It is my dream that one day I will win the BET award,” he said.
