The Sunday Mail
Fatima Bulla —
PLAYERS in the gospel music industry have to up their game if they are to keep up with the competitive and changing environment which has seen promoters opting to support other genres to leverage their businesses.
Less gospel shows find themselves on the calendar each passing year, with promoters highlighting that it is no longer making business sense to promote the genre.
Some music promoters who spoke to The Sunday Mail Religion highlighted lack of aggressiveness amongst gospel artistes, poor quality of productions and depleting attendance at gospel music shows as their reasons for leaning to other music genres.
Barbra Chikosi of Red Rose Entertainment who promoted the Gospel Divas concert held in May last year said gospel artistes are performing for free in churches and receiving appreciation fees there, in the process making them less appealing at shows.
“Less people are coming to gospel shows because they meet the same artistes at their churches. It is no-longer an area to focus on,” Chikosi said.
While in the past years, gospel music programmes on television captured wide audiences, programmes such as the Prime Gospel Show have completely disappeared from the radar.
Chairman of Rayclash Trading, William Mikaye, who has been sponsoring the Star Fm Gospel Greats show, said some gospel artistes do not have any passion for the industry and are pursuing gospel music to eke a living, hence they are churning out sub-standard productions.
“The economy is making it difficult because if you look at youngsters who are pursuing gospel music, very few are doing enough. Marketing such a person can be difficult. People are rushing to make money,” said Mikaye, who also promotes gospel outfit CCAP Voice of Mbare.
With CCAP Voice of Mbare managing to stage well subscribed live DVD recording and launching shows at 7 Arts Theatre, Mikaye said collaborations can assist gospel artistes to manoeuvre through the challenging economic environment.
“Maybe it worked for us because we did collaborations with well known artistes such as Pastor Charles Charamba, Mechanic Manyeruke and Michael Mahendere. ln a way, it helped us fill 7 Arts because the fans of the established artistes were coming,” Mikaye said.
DJ Dee Nosh of 2 Kings Entertainment who has promoted Fungisai Mashavave-Zvakavapano and Matthius Mhere said promoters view the industry with different lenses.
“In my own view, there has not been much after the Charambas. But we have promoted Matthius (Mhere) and Fungisai who is about to launch an album.”
Marondera based promoter Daniel Masaiti said gospel artistes need to put their houses in order and adopt a more aggressive approach.
“I am in my fourth year of promoting music but they (gospel artistes) have never approached me. At one time I tried to pursue a gospel artiste but I kept on being told they were in the studio and could not attend to me until I gave up. With crusades and rising prophets, we also assume they have their own space there.
“Maybe they think we are only there to support secular artistes but we are readily available to see how we can work together. In Zimbabwe very few artistes give you returns, even in dancehall. The majority we have to create shock absorbers to cover their needs and possible losses. So it’s more about passion for me than it is about money.
“We can take them to a different venue and avoid bars, l am a Christian so let’s engage one another. As a leader with the Anglican Church, I would love to handle a solely gospel line up,” Masaiti said.
While promoters also leverage on selling alcohol in secular shows, Simba Madziva of Simmad Entertainment said the gospel music market had never been an option for him as alcohol is not sold there.
“Promotions are not as lucrative as many think. So we have to try and break even through gate takings and sales as well,” Madziva said.
A pacesetter in the industry, Pastor Charamba said gospel music is not dying, adding that artistes who had been leading in hosting concerts could have simply slowed down.
“There is a difference between genres and individual players within the genres. We believe there are singers doing something. Some of those people who were being pursued by gospel artistes in shows repented and are now in church.
“That’s why you see some churches are inviting gospel artistes. There is the idea that gospel artistes should stick to the same venue and same place, which is not bad. But it’s not easy to fill HICC, there are many musicians who do not opt for such big venues.
“But as individuals, it’s true that in 2016 we could say we were on leave. For us it was deliberate but gospel music is beyond certain individuals,” Pastor Charamba said.
Michael Mahendere urged fellow artistes to unite and uphold the importance of fellowship.
“I think it’s not about promotion really, people have to be taught by pastors or by men of God the importance of coming together and gathering to just worship. People don’t really enjoy coming out just to have a wonderful time, going out or coming for a worship evening.
“So that has really affected the turnout on most of the shows we have done and we need promoters that can promote gospel music shows. I think we have to come together as gospel artistes and form an association, try to push and advertise ourselves. Maybe we should have one or two major events where people cannot afford to miss out,” said Mahendere, who is getting ready to release an album titled ‘Getting Personal with God 3’.
Tatenda Mahachi said the media lures people to seek live shows.
“Remember the time when gospel music used to be the backbone of this country with people like Brian Sibalo on television. It’s something we used to look forward to. These are the kind of shows that we are crying for that have been cut. The more people associate with our music it means we are going to get people when we organise shows because they follow what they watch.
“If we say 75 percent of Zimbabweans are Christians, it means gospel music should be on top of others genres,” Mahachi said.
Mahachi said the gospel industry in South Africa had become popular due to massive gospel programmes on radio and television.
“We also need corporates to endorse us. We have seen them endorsing secular artistes with lots of deals that are very encouraging. We want to appeal to the same corporate world to start to appreciate gospel music and make us their brands,” said Mahachi whose album ‘Declarations’ received 12 nominations in various award categories in South Africa last year.
Temba ‘Tembalami’ Tagwirei said it was time to do away with promoters.
“If you are dealing with a promoter it means they pay you, they organise everything and make more money. But if you look at artistes like Beyonce, she doesn’t have promoters per se. She has promotion companies that she created to do promotions for her tours. So pretty much she gets to spend the bigger chunk of what she earns. So this scenario is actually an opportunity for the musician. If you believe in your brand and if you are willing to go out there and do it well, I don’t see it as a problem,” Tembalami said.
He added that gospel music is on a transition.
“Look at Jah Prayzah, he started to sing maybe in 2003 and this is 2017. There is a gap of 13 years so he has had time to build his brand. And we are now building gospel brands. Pastor G (Stanley Gwanzura) does his events and he does them well. ZimPraise as well as Heartfelt Worship team do annual events.
“I think it is more to do with publicity because the secular guys are more out there putting up billboards. But we have a captured audience. I think it’s an opportunity, we are done having promoters,” said Tembalami.
Contemporary gospel artiste, Pastor G, said very few promoters are prepared to invest in promoting gospel music as it is viewed as a high risk area.
“There is some form of promotion going on, like Rayclash Trading’s initiatives with Star Fm and CCAP Voice of Mbare. Artistes themselves are doing their own shows.
“Last year I didn’t do a concert simply because of resources. We need the corporate world to support our music, they really don’t have to put much. We need to get sponsors together. For example, it can be a cell phone company, a commercial bank, a beverage company and probably two others. We can split these costs between the five of them, the gospel industry needs to learn to harness the corporate world,” Pastor G said.
He also encouraged fellow artistes to use various media platforms to maintain their presence.
“On the other side, churches are now promoting gospel musicians at conferences using them for crossover events and for Big Sundays because churches are the biggest consumer of gospel music.
‘‘For example, I am coming from a church tour where I went from church to church performing in Sunday services and then selling CDs.
“They don’t have to pay me but at least I am doing something. l encourage gospel artistes to come together and stage a show where we don’t charge each other. We then share gate takings. I think it’s going to be interesting at some point because artistes have had to learn more about the dynamics of brand building and actually promoting a show. I have learnt in the past seven years on how to get a show done,” Pastor G said.
