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Senior Arts Reporter

Contemporary band, Fusion 5 Mangwiro proved their mettle with a sold out show at Alliance Francaise on Saturday night.

The Harare based group comprising of Brian Maguta, Aaron Manyati, and Gilbert Gwatidzo demonstrated their pedigree with a polished performance before an appreciative crowd.

Aaron Manyati, one of the band members told The Herald Arts that they were highly encouraged by their strides since forming the band in 2014.

“We met in 2014 at a place called The Caravan at Tichagarika Shopping Centre in Glen View and we have not looked back since then.

“Performing before such an appreciative crowd and in a sold out show gives us the confidence that we are on the right path and we pledge to continue churning out good music,” Manyati said.

The group which was backed by Mwenje Mathole and Tafi Matiure and Ancient Voices proved an amazing crowd pulling power inspite of the rains and gave their audience a great music experience.

“We were worried about attendance given the rains that fell across Harare all noon but we are thankful to our faithful and other music lovers that came in numbers.

“Each show is an experience and we love it when they all sing along and make those special requests,” Manyati said.

Fusion 5 Mangwiro has not looked back since they participated in the 2015 Dreamstar Talent Search Programme where they bowed out at Regional level.

“In 2015 we didn’t go far with the Dreamstar Talent Search Programme but in 2016 we made it through into top 10 final stage and proceeded to top 5 stage,” he said.

The group then started getting a lot of attention which pushed them to release our their first smash hit single Katarina in 2017.

“ Katarina was a big hit and got played on all radio stations in country and many beyond.

“The second was African Woman in 2018 and we got attention from some African countries and artists as well, thanks to one of Africa’s biggest artistes Mr Eaz who sponsored the visual,” he said.

The two first singles where two be followed by Mango in 2019 and Mistake in 2020 which scooped lots of awards making Fusion 5 Mangwiro one of the best music groups in Zimbabwe.

They however believe 2021 was one of their biggest highlights given the many successful collaborations and the new single that they are releasing this week.

“In 2021 we came in big and we collaborated with Mwenje and Denilson Musekiwa on Kuhope, Danane featuring Nyasha David, Bonde featuring Mwenje again.

This week we are releasing our single Lucky followed by another single Hariperi on the 30th of November featuring Leonard Mapfumo,” he said.