By Style Reporter
Afro-pop and jazz diva Memory Zaranyika (pictured) says her forthcoming music projects are the refinement of the musical styles she began to explore when she joined the mainstream music industry, thanks to her charts-busting single Bhogo-Bhogo released at the pinnacle of the urban grooves era.
Urban grooves became popular around the year 2000 when the government came up with a deliberate policy to promote local arts by enforcing a 75% threshold for broadcasting local content on national radio and television.
Zaranyika was one of the beneficiaries and released the single, a collaboration she did with Hyper.
Despite keeping a low profile since the release of the hit song, which is about abortion, she has been doing music and refining her style.
Next week she drops two singles — Mahumbwe and Paya — and their videos.
She described the new songs as an embodiment of her passion for women’s rights, equality and justice.
“All along I have been advocating for women’s rights and my first song Bhogo-Bhogo highlights the challenges girls and women face that might push them to make wrong decisions like abortion,” she said.
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“I have been doing music all along but maintaining a low profile. I have refined my art and I am ready to release my two singles Mahumbwe and Paya, which are accompanied by ‘quality’ videos.
“I invested much of my time and resources in the production of the songs and the videos, thanks to Rodney from the Military Touch Movement who is leading the production.”
Zaranyika is hoping her two singles would help her reclaim her status as one of the finest music divas in the country.
“I think this is the time to rise and shine. I did an album titled Down Memory Lane in 2016, but it did not scale to dizzy heights because I failed to market it,” she said.
“I released a single Kumusha and its video from the album, it had its fair share of airplay, but its momentum died along the way.
“The album was an all-jazz project, if I had pushed it well it would have gone platinum. I don’t want to repeat the same mistake with these two singles.”
Zaranyika said her music touches mainly on the daily lives of women.
“The song Mahumbwe is about child marriages. In this case, a grown-up woman who is a victim of child marriage reflects on her early days of marriage when she was young and could not make decisions as a mother. She was vulnerable and she tells her husband that it was all child’s play [mahumbwe],” she said.
“Paya is a love song where couples reflect on the early stages of their nuptials. It’s like at this time of Covid-19 and lockdown when couples redirect their affection to the early days… let’s go back to the old days.”
Zaranyika said apart from releasing the two singles, she was mulling over relaunching her album Down Memory Lane this year.
“My music is timeless. I think a lot of people missed my jazz album and it’s also good to relaunch it,” said the musician.
The gospel diva said the releases would be done online.
