The Sunday Mail
GUITAR Sangoma is certainly a befitting nickname for one talented young man, Sylent Nqo, who recently conquered Hollywood with his blistering skills. The artiste made the nation proud at the recently held World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) in Hollywood after winning crucial silverware in the competition.Sylent won two gold and three silver medals in the Senior Jazz Solo Instrumentals, Senior Overall Instrumentals, Senior Solo Contemporary Instrumentals, Senior Solo Original Works Instrumentals and Senior Open Instrumentals categories respectively.
He also received a trophy for being the Senior Division Champion of the World and a grand trophy after being crowned the Senior Instrumental Grand Champion of the World, propelling him to the Grand Finale.
Although the seniors Grand Championship was within reach for Sylent, it ended up being snatched by Philippine dance troop JR New System.
Thriving at such a platform where many other talented artistes from over 60 countries were also showcasing their skills is nothing short of amazing.
The guitarist was visibly in cloud nine when he landed at Harare International Airport last week on Friday to a warm welcome from family and friends.
“It is really amazing that I actually won all these medals because the competition was stiff but I still managed to come out tops at the end of the day,” said Sylent during an interview with The Sunday Mail Leisure.
“The artistes I was up against were talented so I had to pull off every trick and I managed to prove that I am a great guitarist.”
He said while the stage was overwhelming, he put everything in the hands of God and his ancestors, which helped him relax and to perform to the best of his abilities.
With so much talent to contend with, he had to come up with a solid game plan in order to outplay his opponents.
“There were over a hundred artistes but I managed to bring something totally different and I also performed music that I had composed specifically for the competition. I had arranged it with the help of Daniel Chiweda and Humphrey Domboka.
“I tried to be as original as I could be because I understand Jazz and Blues but I figured that if I tried to play anything they already know, it would just be ordinary, hence I tried to blend chimurenga music and West African music with all the other genres that I know.”
He also credits his success to the effort he put in practising, rehearsing for about 12 hours a day and giving his maximum concentration during the boot camp.
Hollywood is regarded as the centre of global entertainment and therefore this platform gave the 22-year-old a chance to link up with other artistes and music personalities.
After getting such an opportunity to shine on the big stage, Sylent feels the next phase is to penetrate the international market.
“The plan is to get as many international concerts as possible and put our country on the map, which will inspire lots of young artistes out there. Besides the medals, there are a couple of potential deals coming up that I can’t really disclose until they get confirmation but it looks like we will be going global soon,” he said.
He added that local talent contests were still lagging behind considering what he witnessed at WCOPA.
“This competition is on point and it is so mainstream. Our local contests are good but there are a lot of improvements that are needed.
I saw and experienced a lot of extraordinary things that we need to copy or at least learn from to perfect our industry.”
However, Sylent was not the only Zimbabwean victor at the competition. Two other artistes also collected silverware.
Talented beat boxer and dancer Probeats won five gold medals for the Song and Dance, Rap Music, Variety Acts without Assistance, Best Vocal Open and Best Vocal Variety categorises.
Timothy Hogo took part in the modelling category and won gold, silver and bronze medals.
While the duo managed to grab accolades, it is unfortunate they failed to make it into the grand finale.
