By Natasha Muthete
Lilongwe, Mana: Malawians from all walks of life were excited to hear a new genre of music dubbed mash-up of which Patience Namadingo featured several music icons like Lucius Banda, Black Missionaries, Giddes Chalamanda and Billy Kaunda.
According to Namadingo, mash-up is number of songs put together but listeners choose and select what they want from the songs.
About 12 songs putting them together, basically the word mash up is coming in because they are just mashed together.
He was quick to point out the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the coming up of mash-up with Mlaka Maliro.
Namadingo said that, “The coming of Covid-19 disturbed us on our planning because when Covid-19 came, we had already planned to do mash up with Maliro which we did not do. We will do another mash-up with him but that will be communicated.”
Namadingo said that he enjoyed working with every artist and he could not compare them since everyone was unique in their on way.
“Working with Lucius was full of stories. It took longer working with him because we had so much funny listening to his stories from the past,”
“Working with Black Missionary was exciting since it was group sharing a lot of stories. Chalamanda was another thing because I was working with someone in another generation. I had a lot of questions to ask him. He told us a lot of the stories,” he added.
Acting Director of Music Association of Malawi, Gloria Manong’a said Namadingo is the first person bringing Mash–up in the country.
“Mash-up has really helped Namadingo because he has exposed his talent very far and has reached young and old. He has promoted unity among musicians by working together and pass in different messages to people,” she explained.
Manong’a noted that Covid-19 was really a big challenge to the music industry, as most of the musicians depend on live performances where after performances they get money or funds to support their daily living.
“We did not manage to support our members due to financial or material limitations. We did not have enough resources to do so but this has being a lesson to us all. We did not prepare for the disaster but we have to make sure that we keep something for the future use,” she admitted.
Leader of Black Missionary, Anjiru Fumulani stated that it was great performing with Namadingo, the collabo helped to rekindle the fire for old time sake as black missionary.
“Our fans did not believe that we can collaborate with him but they were excited and amazed that it happened,” he said.
Fumulani said that Covid-19 has affected not only the musician’s but even the business community and has affected people financially.
Upcoming artist, Stanley Zikambuma (Zika B) cherishes an opportunity to do mash–up with Namadingo, since he is one of the best artists in the country.
“I have known mash–up because of Namadingo, not many people were aware of this. This has reminded us, the songs that our parents were listening like Chalamanda songs,” he confessed.
Tamika Mkandawire, one of the fans of Namadingo said that she really like his mash-up and she just hopes that he should continue.
Namadingo is the first musician to bring Mash–up in the country and fans are excited.
