The Sunday Mail
Religion Writer
ZAMBIA-based gospel singer and preacher Tracy Chimuka, nee Jenami, has released an animated video for her hit song “Taropafadzwa”.
The video is her third after “Panguvadzino” and “Hosana”, which are both trending on YouTube.
Mother Chimuka says she included scenes of smoking and drinking because Jesus came to help sinners.
She said “Taropafadzwa” was titled after her youngest child and that also influenced the animation of the video.
“Taropafadzwa loves watching animated films and videos and I wanted a video that captures kids as young as Taropafadzwa all the way to adults and grannies,” she said.
A larger than life character who also has comic gospel clips circulating on social networks like WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, Chimuka left Zimbabwe for Zambia in 2005 where she is director of Corporate Air and Tours Africa. However, she still sings primarily for Zimbabweans.
“I sing mostly in Shona and Zimbabwe is still my primary target. However, many Zambians understand Shona as Nyanja is similar to Shona in many ways. And if you listen to some of my songs I also include Nyanja so Zambians can reach out. I am releasing an English album by June this year as well because I loved the response I got for the English songs I have done before — one in each album.”
She released her first album in 2013 and followed it up with another in 2014 before starting work on videos last year.
“Before 2013 I was more of a preacher rather than a singer and my participation in music was as a mere praise and worship singer. I did a lot of preaching and counselling until I felt I needed to reach out more and touch more lives. Music was my means to reach out.
“I try to put as much message as I can in all my songs because I want people to hear the word. I write them with all my passion because I’m trying to preach. I’m a preacher at Methodist but after preaching I always get the feeling I can reach out to more people. Music helps me do that.”
