.MHONE

By CHUSA SICHONE –

CURVY body with a naturally dark complexion and when she sings, she does so with her emotions attached, at times to the extent of shedding tears.
Wezi Victoria Mhone is her name. Expect her to either shed tears or have teary eyes when she sings Ambuya.
Ambuya (meaning grandparent) is Wezi’s first single in her music career which started in 2012. The song is a tribute to her late grandmother, who was and still is her heroine and role model in life and death.
“Ambuya was a tribute song to my grandma, a real life situation ‘cause my grandma was role model, till now she’s my role model.
“After she died, I was devastated for three years. She died when I was in Grade nine. In Grade nine I couldn’t speak to anyone about it, I was in a depression, (I had) suicidal things. She was my best friend, I broke down for a long time until I reunited with my mother in Lusaka because I grew up in Ndola and I was raised by my uncle,” she says.
Wezi says it was her mother’s words of encouragement which enabled her to recover from the depression of losing her grandmother, who also happens to be her mother’s mother.
Wezi does not speak so highly about her father the same way she does about her grandmother probably because she lost her father when she was five years old only but recalls him having listened to her sing at that tender age.
A vegetarian born on Africa Freedom Day (May 25) in 1992, the second child in a family of four, Wezi’s late father was a pastor while her mother is still one.
Like her parents, Wezi is a proud Christian and thus does not entertain immorality or anything that does not please God.
Wezi attended Ndola Basic School, Northrise Basic School and Dominican Covent High School before enrolling at the University of Zambia (Unza).
She is currently pursuing her Major in Psychology and Minor in Gender Studies and Sociology at Unza and describes herself as a B+ “good student”.
Wezi, who draws her inspiration from Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Maureen Lilanda, Mumba Yachi Pompi and Zone Fam, started her music journey at award winning dancehall artiste T-Sean’s Bizzy Baila International record label three years ago but left a year later.
“I think the biggest highlight from 2012 when I became a professional artiste was when I opened for Zahara (South African songbird) on 24th May. It was like the biggest birthday present. She called me on stage, she hugged. It was just a surreal moment,” Wezi says.
Wezi also gave a spirited performance at NASDEC last year to warm up the stage for Ghanaian star Joey B, renowned for his Tonga song.
After leaving T-Sean’s label, Wezi had a short stint with Vibrant Media before concentrating on her education.
Asked how she is managing to juggle school with music, Wezi describes this year as her worst in terms of grades, attributing that to having channeled most of her time to the K300, 000 worth Zambian version of the Airtel Trace Music Star competition in which she emerged runner up.
Wezi and other contestants spent time rehearsing for the final of the Zambian Airtel Trace Music Star finale held on February 21 this year thereby negatively affecting her school work. Bernard Shaluchiso scooped the K300, 000 but chants from the audience tipped Wezi to be the favourite.
She pledges to pull up her socks and not give up so that she goes back to her passing ways as failing will set a bad precedence to the people who look up to her as a role model.
On losing the K300, 000, Wezi says she feels she gave a winning performance and still does not understand why she did not emerge winner of the competition, adding that it was crushing as she did not enter the competition to lose or be second place.
Wezi partly attributes Bernard’s winning to him singing a more popular song Thinking out loud by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran than the one she sung, 10 years, by Zambia’s Salma Sky. 10 years was the only song on the list Wezi was familiar with.
Being a child to pastors, one would have expected Wezi to be a gospel artiste. She is not and calls her type of music as Afro-Soul.
Wezi says she loves God wholeheartedly and is not ashamed of that and strongly believes that one does not necessarily have to be a gospel artiste to convey God’s word.
“My mum blessed me and she knows that whatever tag I carry doesn’t matter. What matters is what my heart carries. You know, God sees our hearts not our outer appearance. I can tag myself a gospel artiste and still be that hypocrite, you see?
“Whether or not you are a hypocrite and whatever, it’s not really what you call yourself, it’s what you are called to be, that’s what I believe in and I believe I was called to save and win souls for Jesus and am going to do that with or without a tag,” Wezi says.
After the Airtel Trace Music Star competition, Wezi signed with Mojo Music. She believes Mojo Music’s vision coincides with hers, which is the passion for live music, among others.
Wezi says live music is her passion but does not look down on those artistes dependent on digital music, saying that is their area of interest, which needs to be respected as they have fans who love that kind of music the same way others prefer live performances.
Wezi loves performing barefoot and is currently working on her highly anticipated debut album to be released during the course of this year.
The album’s theme, she says, will be liberty. It will be authentic music focusing on love, hope and discouraging immorality, among other real life matters.
Since she came on the scene in 2012, the Afro-Soul singer has only done singles. These include Ambuya, Tichitenji, Nipulumuseni and Dziko, zuba na mwezi.
Wezi has been featured in arguably the most popular song in the country this year called Toliwe by Zambian Music Awards winning artiste Willz ‘Nyopole’.
Whoever has not seen or heard Wezi perform but loves Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and Maureen Lilanda will surely love this young lady as she is somewhat a younger version of those divas.