AWARD-WINNING Zimbabwean gospel artiste Reverend Togarepi Chivaviro winds up his debut tour of the United States today in style, holding two events at Lovers Lane United Methodist and Dallas Wesleyan Methodist churches, after his successful first appearance dubbed Dallas Grand Crossover Night on New Year’s Eve at Harvest International Church, who are the promoters of the tour.
BY ALBERT MASAKA
Chivaviro told The Standard Style that he was over the moon because of the massive response that he had received so far in the US particularly the Dallas Grand Crossover Night event.
“The one on December 31, 2018 remains in our minds because it was a mixed gathering of people who fellowship in different churches here in Texas and some who do not even go to church,” Chivaviro said.
“It was a full house with more than 500 people, we were ministering in word and song for the night and the response was quite massive.
“It was also a mixture of Zimbabweans and non-Zimbabweans who love our music. We were also glad that we had some Americans in that particular worship concert, it was quite exciting for us.
“We had the second programme at the United Methodist Church on Sunday and we are holding two events at Lovers Lane United Methodist and Dallas Wesleyan Methodist churches on Sunday as well, then the following day we go back to Africa.”
The Ebenezer hitmaker said the concerts were worship times where they were preaching both in word and song.
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“The band we were working with here was quite experienced, some are guys who were playing music in Zimbabwe for quite sometime, so it was like home away from home,” he said.
He said the tour was an eye-opener and urged local gospel musicians to adopt new marketing strategies that focus on selling their music online in digital format to reach the international audience.
“It’s a learning process, but it’s quite amazing that we have so many fans here, we thank God for that.
“The only way we can be able to successfully market our music beyond our borders is to adopt the modern trends which is marketing online, this is the reason why when we came here people were singing along to our songs,” he said.
Chivaviro, who has previously staged shows in Europe and the Middle East, and also several African countries is now eyeing the Australian market.
