Zambian Music – Zonefam

George da Soulchild Kaufela writes:

Zambian music has continued to conquer Africa and the world in more ways than most people actually give it credit for – little by little our urban infectious sound has continued to spread. This could be credited to all the artistes, promoters and music producers that are doing the hard work and now producing quality music that is marketable to the world.

The local music industry needs a huge injection of investment from government and the private sector as it still lacks professional artist management and promotion. The local media, both print and electronic, does what it can to help put the artistes in the limelight, even when most people feel things would be much better if there were a dedicated press put in place to help grow the industry.

Another thing that would help would be an official website or a way to release singles, as most single in Zambia are released on Twitter or Facebook in a typically amateur way of doing things. Nevertheless the infectious sounds continue to grow and conquer – we recently witnessed one of the most amazing achievements in Zambia music history – rap group Zonefam won a Channel O award against all odds in a category were no one give them a chance, and in which they were up against Africa’s heavy weights, big names with popular songs that include Tear Gas a South African hip-hop trio who in the past have won a few of channel O awards themselves. Other artists up against our own Zonefam were Aka a high profile artist in his own right, Mi Casa, Eme and Naeto C featuring D’Banj, famous in and outside Africa.

Everyone on the list is a high profile artist with bigger and more experienced management and promoters but against all odds Zonefam won the award – it was a victory not only for the rap group but for the whole Zambian music industry as it gives more hope to other Zambian artistes to aim for the sky and achieve the impossible. Zonefam’s Channel O award indicates that Zambian Music can no longer be held back. Some of our celebrated Zambian artistes out there include Mampi, JK, Roberto, Petersen, B-flow, Ozzy and Shyman just to mention a few. These guys do truly carry the Zambian flag high and help the Zambian music grow every time they perform outside the country.

Once more congratulations to Zonefam, the artists and their management.

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